a. Incautious; precipitate; heedless. [ Obs. ] Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OE. need, neod, nede, AS. neád, n&ymacr_;d; akin to D. nood, G. not, noth, Icel. nauðr, Sw. & Dan. nöd, Goth. nauþs. ] 1. A state that requires supply or relief; pressing occasion for something; necessity; urgent want. [ 1913 Webster ]

And the city had no need of the sun. Rev. xxi. 23. [ 1913 Webster ]

I have no need to beg. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Be governed by your needs, not by your fancy. Jer. Taylor. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Want of the means of subsistence; poverty; indigence; destitution. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

Famine is in thy cheeks;
Need and oppression starveth in thine eyes. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. That which is needful; anything necessary to be done; (pl.) necessary things; business. [ Obs. ] Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Situation of need; peril; danger. [ Obs. ] Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- Exigency; emergency; strait; extremity; necessity; distress; destitution; poverty; indigence; want; penury. -- 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. Of necessity. See Needs. [ Obs. ] Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Needed; p. pr. & vb. n. Needing. ] [ See Need, n. Cf. AS. n&ymacr_;dan to force, Goth. nauþjan. ] To be in want of; to have cause or occasion for; to lack; to require, as supply or relief. [ 1913 Webster ]

Other creatures all day long
Rove idle, unemployed, and less need rest. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ 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. ). [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To be wanted; to be necessary. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

When we have done it, we have done all that is in our power, and all that needs. Locke. [ 1913 Webster ]

adj. necessary; as, provided them with all needed equipment. Opposite of unnecessary.
Syn. -- needful, required, requisite. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. One who needs anything. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. 1. Full of need; in need or want; needy; distressing. [ Archaic ] Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

The needful time of trouble. Bk. of Com. Prayer. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Necessary for supply or relief; requisite. [ 1913 Webster ]

All things needful for defense abound. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

-- Need"ful*ly, adv. -- Need"ful*ness, n. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. [ From Needy. ] In a needy condition or manner; necessarily. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The state or quality of being needy; want; poverty; indigence. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OE. nedle, AS. n&aemacr_;dl; akin to D. neald, OS. nādla, G. nadel, OHG. nādal, nādala, Icel. nāl, Sw. nål, Dan. naal, and also to G. nähen to sew, OHG. nājan, L. nere to spin, Gr. ne`ein, and perh. to E. snare: cf. Gael. & Ir. snathad needle, Gael. snath thread, G. schnur string, cord. ] 1. A small instrument of steel, sharply pointed at one end, with an eye to receive a thread, -- used in sewing. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ In some needles (as for sewing machines) the eye is at the pointed end, but in ordinary needles it is at the blunt end. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. See Magnetic needle, under Magnetic. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A slender rod or wire used in knitting; a knitting needle; also, a hooked instrument which carries the thread or twine, and by means of which knots or loops are formed in the process of netting, knitting, or crocheting. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Bot.) One of the needle-shaped secondary leaves of pine trees. See Pinus. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. Any slender, pointed object, like a needle, as a pointed crystal, a sharp pinnacle of rock, an obelisk, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. A hypodermic needle; a syringe fitted with a hypodermic needle, used for injecting fluids into the body. [ Informal ] [ PJC ]

7. An injection of medicine from a hypodermic needle; a shot. [ PJC ]

Dipping needle. See under Dipping. --
Needle bar, the reciprocating bar to which the needle of a sewing machine is attached. --
Needle beam (Arch.), in shoring, the horizontal cross timber which goes through the wall or a pier, and upon which the weight of the wall rests, when a building is shored up to allow of alterations in the lower part. --
Needle furze (Bot.), a prickly leguminous plant of Western Europe; the petty whin (Genista Anglica). --
Needle gun, a firearm loaded at the breech with a cartridge carrying its own fulminate, which is exploded by driving a slender needle, or pin, into it. [ archaic ] --
Needle loom (Weaving), a loom in which the weft thread is carried through the shed by a long eye-pointed needle instead of by a shuttle. --
Needle ore (Min.), acicular bismuth; a sulphide of bismuth, lead, and copper occuring in acicular crystals; -- called also aikinite. --
Needle shell (Zool.), a sea urchin. --
Needle spar (Min.), aragonite. --
Needle telegraph, a telegraph in which the signals are given by the deflections of a magnetic needle to the right or to the left of a certain position. --
Sea needle (Zool.), the garfish. [ 1913 Webster ]