 |
6 definitions found
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Need \Need\ (n[=e]d), noun [OE. need, neod, nede, AS. ne['a]d, n[=y]d; akin to D. nood, G. not, noth, Icel. nau[eth]r, Sw. & Dan. n["o]d, Goth. nau[thorn]s.]
1. A state that requires supply or relief; pressing occasion for something; necessity; urgent want.
And the city had no need of the sun. --Rev. xxi. 23.
I have no need to beg. --Shak.
Be governed by your needs, not by your fancy. --Jer. Taylor.
2. Want of the means of subsistence; poverty; indigence; destitution. --Chaucer.
Famine is in thy cheeks; Need and oppression starveth in thine eyes. --Shak.
3. That which is needful; anything necessary to be done; (pl.) necessary things; business. [Obs.] --Chaucer.
4. Situation of need; peril; danger. [Obs.] --Chaucer.
Syn: Exigency; emergency; strait; extremity; necessity; distress; destitution; poverty; indigence; want; penury.
Usage: {Need}, {Necessity}. Necessity is stronger than need; it places us under positive compulsion. We are frequently under the necessity of going without that of which we stand very greatly in need. It is also with the corresponding adjectives; necessitous circumstances imply the direct pressure of suffering; needy circumstances, the want of aid or relief.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Need \Need\, verb (used without an object) To be wanted; to be necessary. --Chaucer.
When we have done it, we have done all that is in our power, and all that needs. --Locke.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Need \Need\, adverb Of necessity. See {Needs}. [Obs.] --Chaucer.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Need \Need\ (n[=e]d), verb (used with an object) [imp. & p. p. {Needed}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Needing}.] [See {Need}, noun Cf. AS. n[=y]dan to force, Goth. nau[thorn]jan.] To be in want of; to have cause or occasion for; to lack; to require, as supply or relief.
Other creatures all day long Rove idle, unemployed, and less need rest. --Milton.
Note: With another verb, need is used like an auxiliary, generally in a negative sentence expressing requirement or obligation, and in this use it undergoes no change of termination in the third person singular of the present tense. ''And the lender need not fear he shall be injured.'' --Anacharsis (Trans. ).
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
need
noun
1: a condition requiring relief; "she satisfied his need for affection"; "God has no need of men to accomplish His work"; "there is a demand for jobs" [syn: {demand}]
2: anything that is necessary but lacking; "he had sufficient means to meet his simple needs"; "I tried to supply his wants" [syn: {want}]
3: the psychological feature that arouses an organism to action toward a desired goal; the reason for the action; that which gives purpose and direction to behavior; "we did not understand his motivation"; "he acted with the best of motives" [syn: {motivation}, {motive}]
4: a state of extreme poverty or destitution; "their indigence appalled him"; "a general state of need exists among the homeless" [syn: {indigence}, {penury}, {beggary}, {pauperism}, {pauperization}]
verb
1: require as useful, just, or proper; "It takes nerve to do what she did"; "success usually requires hard work"; "This job asks a lot of patience and skill"; "This position demands a lot of personal sacrifice"; "This dinner calls for a spectacular dessert"; "This intervention does not postulates a patient's consent" [syn: {necessitate}, {ask}, {postulate}, {require}, {take}, {involve}, {call for}, {demand}] [ant: {obviate}]
2: have need of; "This piano wants the attention of a competent tuner" [syn: {want}, {require}]
3: have or feel a need for; "always needing friends and money"
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
169 Moby Thesaurus words for "need": absence, ardor, arrearage, ask, bare cupboard, bare necessities, bare subsistence, basic, be forced, be hurting for, be in for, be in want, be indicated, be necessary, be obliged, be pinched, be poor, beggarliness, beggary, break, call, call for, cannot do otherwise, cannot help but, charge, claim, clamor for, commitment, committal, concupiscence, constraint, covet, crave, cry for, cry out for, curiosity, dearth, defalcation, defect, defectiveness, deficiency, deficit, demand, demand for, deprivation, desideration, desideratum, desire, destitution, devoir, difficulty, discontinuity, distress, drive, drought, duty, eagerness, emergency, empty purse, essential, essentials, exact, exaction, exigency, extremity, famine, fancy, fantasy, fundamental, gap, go on welfare, grinding poverty, gripe, hand-to-mouth existence, hanker, have, have got to, have need to, have occasion for, have to, hiatus, homelessness, hope, horme, hunger, impecuniousness, imperfection, impoverishment, incompleteness, indigence, indispensable, insufficiency, intellectual curiosity, interval, lack, lacuna, libido, long, lust for learning, mendicancy, mind, miss, missing link, moneylessness, must, must item, necessaries, necessary, necessities, necessitousness, necessity, need for, need to, needfulness, neediness, needs must, occasion, omission, ought, outage, passion, paucity, pauperism, pauperization, penury, pinch, pine, pleasure, pleasure principle, poorness, poverty, prerequire, prerequirement, prerequisite, privation, require, requirement, requisite, requisition, right, run short of, scarcity, sexual desire, shortage, shortcoming, shortfall, should, sine qua non, starvation, starve, stress, take doing, the necessary, the needful, thirst, thirst for knowledge, trouble, ullage, urge, use, want, want doing, wantage, wanting, will, will and pleasure, wish, wish fulfillment, yearn
 |
Definitions retrieved from local copies of the freely distributed DICT client/server software and databases. Click here for database copyright information. Audio provided by one of our generous visitors. - KM |