Need Definition

nēd

needed, needs

noun

needs

Necessity or obligation created by some situation.

No need to worry.

Webster's New World

Something useful, required, or desired that is lacking; want; requirement.

List your daily needs.

Webster's New World

A lack of something useful, required, or desired.

To have need of a rest.

Webster's New World

A condition characterized by hardship or serious deficiency.

Flood victims in need of food and shelter.

Webster's New World

A condition of poverty, or extreme want.

Webster's New World

Synonyms:

Antonyms:

verb

needed, needs

To be necessary; chiefly in impersonal or subjunctive constructions.

He need not worry.

Webster's New World

To be under the necessity of or the obligation to.

They need not come. You needn't be concerned.

American Heritage

To be in need.

Webster's New World

To have an obligation (to do something).

You need to clean up your room.

American Heritage

To have need of; want or lack; require.

He need not come, he needs to be careful.

Webster's New World

Synonyms:

Synonyms:
do with
be up against it
be hard up
be down and out
feel-the-pinch
live from hand to mouth
not approach
go hungry
be deficient in
have need for
have use for
feel a dearth
be inadequate
be-short
be destitute

Antonyms:

idiom

have need to

to be compelled or required to; must

Webster's New World

if need be

if it is required; if the occasion demands

Webster's New World

Other Word Forms of Need

Noun

Singular:

need

Plural:

needs

Idioms, Phrasal Verbs Related to Need

have need to
if need be

Origin of Need

From Middle English need, nede, partly from Old English nÄ«ed, nÄ“ad (“necessity, inevitableness, need, urgent requirement, compulsion, duty; errand, business; difficulty, hardship, distress, trouble, pain; violence, force"), from Proto-Germanic *naudiz, *nauþiz (“need, trouble, force, distress, compulsion, fate, destiny"), from Proto-Indo-European *nAut- (“torment, misfortune"), from Proto-Indo-European *nāw- (“the dead, corpse"); and partly from Old English nÄ“od (“desire, longing; zeal, eagerness, diligence, earnestness, earnest endeavor; pleasure, delight"), from Proto-Germanic *neudō, *neudaz (“wish, urge, desire, longing"), from Proto-Indo-European *new- (“to incline, tend, move, push, nod, wave"). Cognate with Scots nede (“need"), North Frisian nud (“hardship, danger, fear, self-defense, compulsion, control"), West Frisian need (“need"), Dutch nood (“need, want, distress, peril"), Low German noot (“need"), German Not (“need, distress, necessity, hardship"), Danish nød (“distress, need, necessity"), Swedish nöd (“distress, need, necessity, want"), Icelandic neyð, nauð (“distress, emergency, need"), North Frisian njoe (“requirement, foredeal, benefit, convenience"), Middle Low German nüt (“desire, need, longing"), Middle High German niet (“longing, desire, eagerness, zeal"), German niedlich (“desirable, appealing, lovely, cute"). More at needly. Old norse nauð(r) ("powerty,distress, lack of")

From Wiktionary
Middle English nede from Old English nēod, nēd distress, necessity

From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
From Middle English neden, from Old English nÄ“odian.

From Wiktionary