need
nounverbtop 1 000 in film dialogue
- United Kingdom//niːd//
- United Kingdom/[nɪi̯d]/
- Canada//nid//
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.
I've always tried to have few needs beyond food, clothing and shelter.
- 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.
Etymology
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”).
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.
She needed convincing that I was what she really needed.
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.
- 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 heat of friction out from between sticks to kindle a flame. With more settled people, animals were harnessed to capstans or caged in treadmills to turn grist into meal.
- 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.
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.
- 5
obsoleteTo be necessary (to someone).
More ample spirit, then hitherto was wount, / Here needes me […]
Etymology
From Middle English neden, from Old English nēodian.
Forms
- plural
- needs
- past tense
- needed
- past participle
- needed
- present participle
- needing
- third person singular
- needs
need · A requirement for something; something needed.
needed · Necessary; being required.needing · A need.needle · A long, thin, sharp implement usually for piercing as in…