need

A requirement for something; something needed.

Noun

  1. A requirement for something; something needed.
    • There's no need to speculate; we can easily find out for sure.
    • She grew irritated with his constant need for attention.
    • Our needs are not being met.

    Synonyms: occasion use

  2. A desire or craving for the satisfaction of a requirement perceived as essential or primal.
  3. Lack of means of subsistence; poverty; indigence; destitution.
    • Famine is in thy cheeks; Need and oppression starveth in thine eyes. - c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies...

Origin

From Middle English need, nede, a merger of two terms: * Old English nīed (West Saxon), nēd (Mercian), nēad (“necessity, compulsion, want”), from Proto-West Germanic *naudi, from Proto-Germanic *naudiz, from Proto-Indo-European *neh₂w- (“death”). * Old English nēod (“desire, longing”), from Proto-West Germanic *niudi (“desire, eagerness”), from Proto-Indo-European *new- (“to incline, tend, move, push, nod, wave”).

Forms

needs

Related

in need

Derived

a friend in need is a friend indeed basic needs call-by-need hour of need if need be if needs be in dire need of in need manly needs need-based need-blind needcessity need-fire needful needfully needfulness needily neediness needless needlessly needlessness needly need more time in the oven need-not

Verb

  1. To have an absolute requirement for.
    • Living things need water to survive.
    • You do not always need to go to the library to study. You may use the Internet.
    • Scotland needed a victory by eight points to have a realistic chance of progressing to the knock-out stages, and for long periods of a ferocious contest looked as if they might pull it off. - 2011 October 1, Tom...
  2. To want strongly; to feel that one must have something.
    • After ten days of hiking, I needed a shower and a shave.
    • Energy has seldom been found where we need it when we want it. Ancient nomads, wishing to ward off the evening chill and enjoy a meal around a campfire, had to collect wood and then spend time and effort coaxing the...
  3. To be obliged or required (to do something).
    • I need not go if I don't want to, need I?
    • I was wondering if I need fill in more forms. - No, that's the only one you need fill out.
    • I need never have packed my set of sunglasses - it rained all day every day.
  4. To be required; to be necessary.
    • When we have done it, we have done our duty, and all that is in our power, and indeed all that needs. - 1694, [John Locke], chapter 21, in An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], 2nd edition, London: […] Thomas...
    • Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic who still resists the idea that something drastic needs to happen for him to turn his life around. - 2013 June 28, Joris...
  5. To be necessary (to someone).
    • More ample spirit, then hitherto was wount, / Here needes me […] - 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

Origin

From Middle English neden, from Old English nēodian.

Forms

needs needing needed no-table-tags glossary need needest neededst needeth -

Synonyms

desire wish for would like want will be without lack be in need of require

Derived

a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle baby needs new shoes citation needed do you need an invitation do you need help do you need to use the bathroom every king needs a queen feeling good wine needs no bush I need ... I need a guide I need to vomit last thing one needs like one needs a hole in the head needable needed unneeded needer need I say more needling needment need no introduction need not need one's bumps