need noun [OE. need, neod, nede, AS. neád, nȳd; 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.

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. – 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 (nēd) transitive verb [imperfect or past participle Needed; present participle or verbal noun Needing.] [See Need, noun Cf. AS. nȳdan to force, Goth. nauþjan.] 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.

☞ 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 intransitive verb

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, adverb Of necessity. See Needs. [Obs.] Chaucer.