Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon

A.“τοῦ χρεών” E.Hipp.1256, HF21, but little used save in nom. and acc.:—that which must be, “κατὰ τὸ χ.” Anaximand.1 (Diels Vorsokr.5); “τὴν μοῖραν εἰς τὸ μὴ χ. παραστρέφων” E.Fr.491.3; “χ. τοῦ χρησμοῦ” Plu.Nic.14.

II. necessity, fate, “ἥ τε ἡλικία καὶ τὸ χ.” Pl.Phdr.255a; “μοίρας τοῦ χρεών τ᾽ ἀπαλλαγή” E.Hipp.1256; “εἰς τὸ χ. ἰέναι” Pl.Ax.364c; ἀπελθεῖν εἰς τὸ χ., εἰς τὸ χ. ἀπαλλάσσεσθαι, Str.1.3.21, J.AJ7.15.1; οἱ τὴν εἰς τὸ χ. πορευόμενοι (cj. for ποιούμενοι), v. l. τῶν εἰς τὸ χ. ὁδευόντων, Plu.2.113c; “τό τοι χρεὼν οὐκ ἔστι μὴ χρεὼν ποιεῖν” Trag.Adesp.368; “ὅ τι γὰρ μὴ χ. οὔτοι χ. παθεῖν” E. Ba.515; [“Ἀλέξανδρον] τὸ χ. ἐν Βαβυλῶνι κατέλαβε” Jul.Or.3.107c.

2. mostly in the phrase χρεών (sc. ἐστι), like χρή, it is necessary, c. inf., Thgn.564, A.Ag.922, S.OT633, Democr. l. c., etc.: c. acc. et inf., Pi.P.2.52, Hdt.1.41,57, 2.133, A.Pr.772,970, al., S.Ph.1439, Ar. Eq.138, Th.5.49; “τὸ χ. γενέσθαι” Hdt.7.17.

3. sts. as a neut. part. (like ἐξόν, etc.), it being necessary, since it was necessary, Id.5.50.

III. less freq., that which is expedient or right, “ὅρκον δ᾽ οὔτ᾽ ἄδικον χ. ἔμμεναι οὔτε δίκαιον” Choeril.7; “ἔννεπε τί σοι χρεὼν ὑπουργεῖν” S.Ph.143 (lyr.); “μητέρ᾽ εἰ χ. ταύτην προσαυδᾶν” Id.El.273, cf. 983, Ar.Nu.1446(lyr.), etc.; with the Art., “ἔκανες ὃν οὐ χρῆν, καὶ τὸ μὴ χ. πάθε” A.Ch..930: abs. in part., ὑμεῖς ἂν οὐ χ. ἄρχοιτε ye would rule unrightfully, Th.3.40.—In Trag. χρεών ( = χρή) appears without ἐστί or ἦν; in Ar. and Prose the verb is more commonly added, but not in Ar.Nu. l. c., Pl.Sph.220d, Criti.107b, al.

IV. as Adj., “τῷ χ. πόσει” E.Fr.501. (Not in Hom. or Hes., Od.15.201 being f. l. for χρεώ.) [In Poets χρεών is sts. monosyll., as in Choeril. l. c., Parm.4.5, al.; outside of hexameters prob. always disyll., since χρή can be restored in E.IT1486, Fr.733.3.] (From χρεώ, with addition of ν from the synonym δέον; when used as part. abs., as in Sol.Fr.34.6, Th.3.40, from χρεὼ ὄν.）