Definition of "expedient"

Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter willnot come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], John 16:7

Nothing but the right can ever be the expedient, since that can never be true expediency which would sacrifice a greater good to a less.

a. 1863, Richard Whately, Thoughts and Apophthegms

[T]he judges were unanimously of opinion that [...] by the common law of England, no man, not authorised by the crown, had a right to publish political news. While the Whig party was still formidable, the government thought it expedient occasionally to connive at the violation of this rule.

1849, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter III, in The History of England from the Accession of James II, volume I, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, page 389

That's because the debate pits textbook economics — which argues that bailouts beget bad behavior begets more bailouts — against practical politics. And politics, or the taking of expedient steps to keep people happy, will almost always win.

2009, CQ Weekly‎, volume 67, numbers 31-36, page 2190

Government has slowly but positively moved from an active course of following plans and policies to the easier and more expedient course of the counterpuncher.

2011, L. Fletcher Prouty, Jesse Ventura, The Secret Team: The CIA and Its Allies in Control of the United States and the World‎

Its policies toward foreign lab or across these eras reflect these sharp differences in context, but also reflect a common pattern to treat the recruitment and deployment of foreign nationals as an expedient measure to serve immediate economic objectives

2013, Douglas B. Klusmeyer, Demetrios G. Papademetriou, Immigration Policy in the Federal Republic of Germany‎

But the Expedient, in the sense in which it is opposed to the Right, generally means that which is expedient for the particular interest of the agent himself; as when a minister sacrifices the interests of his country to keep himself in place.

1861, John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism

the adverse winds / Whose leisure I have stay'd, have given him time / To land his legions all as soon as I; / His marches are expedient to this town / His forces strong, his soldiers confident.

c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene i], lines 57–61

To secure such a market, there is no other expedient, than to promote manufacturing establishments.

1791 December 5, Alexander Hamilton, “Alexander Hamilton’s Final Version of the Report on the Subject of Manufactures”, in Harold C. Syrett, editor, The Papers of Alexander Hamilton‎, volume 10, New York: Columbia University Press, published 1966

He would never let her know that he was aware of the strange expedient to which she had been driven by her great distress.

1906, O. Henry, The Green Door

Depressingly, [...] the expedient of importing African slaves was in part meant to protect the native American population from exploitation.

2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 709