Definition of "expedience"

expedience

/ɛk.spiː.dɪ.əns/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural expediences
1. (uncountable) The quality of being fit or suitable to cause some desired end or the purpose intended; propriety or advisability under the particular circumstances of a case.
  Quotations
  to determine concerning the expedience of actions
  April 11 1690, John Sharp, sermon preached at White-Hall
2. Speed, haste or urgency.
  Quotations
  making hither with all due expedience
  1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene i]
  The sense of expedience that allowed White to cut deals and keep moving had made many, mistakenly, see him as shallow or, worse, unprincipled.
  2008, Thomas Dyja, Walter White: The Dilemma of Black Identity in America, page 178
3. Something that is expedient.
4. (obsolete) An expedition; enterprise; adventure.
  Quotations
  forwarding this dear expedience
  c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene i]