About The Word Need

Bay Area Crosswords

Learn about the word Need to help solve your crossword puzzle. Discover Need definitions and meaning, origins, synonyms, related terms and more at the free Crossword Dictionary.

Need

Need Meaning & Definition
Need Definition And Meaning

What's The Definition Of Need?

[n] 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"
[n] anything that is necessary but lacking; "he had sufficient means to meet his simple needs"; "I tried to supply his wants"
[n] 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"
[n] a state of extreme poverty or destitution; "their indigence appalled him"; "a general state of need exists among the homeless"
[v] have need of; "This piano wants the attention of a competent tuner"
[v] have or feel a need for; "always needing friends and money"
[v] be in want of
[v] 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"
[v] be obliged, required, or forced to; "She has to get her driver's license"
[v] be logically necessary

Synonyms | Synonyms for Need: ask | beggary | call for | demand | demand | have | have got | indigence | involve | motivation | motive | must | necessitate | ought | pauperism | pauperization | penury | postulate | require | require | should | take | want | want

Related Terms | Find terms related to 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

See Also | be | condition | cost | cry | cry for | cry out for | deficiency | desire | draw | essential | ethical motive | ethics | govern | imply | impoverishment | impulse | irrational motive | lack | life | mental energy | morality | morals | necessary | necessity | necessity | poorness | poverty | psychic energy | psychological feature | rational motive | requirement | requisite | status | urge | want | want

Need In Webster's Dictionary

\Need\, n. [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. naups.] 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.
\Need\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Needed}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Needing}.] [See {Need}, n. Cf. AS. n?dan to force, Goth. nau?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. ).
\Need\, v. i. 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.
\Need\, adv. Of necessity. See {Needs}. [Obs.] --Chaucer.

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