behoove

[ bih-hoov ]

/ bɪˈhuv /

(chiefly in impersonal use)

to be necessary or proper for, as for moral or ethical considerations; be incumbent on: It behooves the court to weigh evidence impartially.

to be worthwhile to, as for personal profit or advantage: It would behoove you to be nicer to those who could help you.

Archaic. to be needful, proper, or due: Perseverance is a quality that behooves in a scholar.

Origin of behoove

before 900; Middle English behoven, Old English behōfian to need ( behōf behoof + -ian infinitive suffix)

2 benefit, advantage, serve, better, advance; suit, befit, beseem.

behmenist, behn, behold, beholden, behoof, behoove, behove, behrens, behring, behring's law, behrman

But, considering your generous resolution, it does not behoove me to complain of our fate.

Napoleon and the Queen of Prussia |L. Mhlbach,
The old man had two favorite words—behoove and emit—but behoove was evidently his choice.

Europe Revised |Irvin S. Cobb
It does not behoove us, who neither believe in their right to prohibit free assembly, nor to permit it, to appeal to them.

Mother Earth, Vol. 1 No. 2, April 1906 |Various
Therefore it does not behoove any active man to make gratuitous additions of a peculiar nature to the law of business.

Burroughs' Encyclopaedia of Astounding Facts and Useful Information, 1889 |Barkham Burroughs

In all ways, it behooved men to quit simulacra and return to fact; cost what it might, that did behoove to be done.

Heroes and Hero Worship |Thomas Carlyle