Library / English Dictionary

NEED

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

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

Example:

he acted with the best of motives

Synonyms:

motivation; motive; need

Classified under:

Nouns with no superordinates

Hypernyms ("need" is a kind of...):

psychological feature (a feature of the mental life of a living organism)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "need"):

life (a motive for living)

rational motive (a motive that can be defended by reasoning or logical argument)

irrational motive (a motivation that is inconsistent with reason or logic)

impulse; urge (an instinctive motive)

ethical motive; ethics; morality; morals (motivation based on ideas of right and wrong)

mental energy; psychic energy (an actuating force or factor)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Anything that is necessary but lacking

Example:

I tried to supply his wants

Synonyms:

need; want

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Hypernyms ("need" is a kind of...):

essential; necessary; necessity; requirement; requisite (anything indispensable)

Derivation:

need (require as useful, just, or proper)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A condition requiring relief

Example:

there is a demand for jobs

Synonyms:

demand; need

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("need" is a kind of...):

condition; status (a state at a particular time)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "need"):

deficiency; lack; want (the state of needing something that is absent or unavailable)

necessity (the condition of being essential or indispensable)

Derivation:

need (have need of)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A state of extreme poverty or destitution

Example:

a general state of need exists among the homeless

Synonyms:

indigence; need; pauperism; pauperization; penury

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("need" is a kind of...):

impoverishment; poorness; poverty (the state of having little or no money and few or no material possessions)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "need"):

beggary; mendicancy; mendicity (the state of being a beggar or mendicant)

Derivation:

needy (poor enough to need help from others)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Have need of

Example:

This piano wants the attention of a competent tuner

Synonyms:

need; require; want

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

Hypernyms (to "need" is one way to...):

be (have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun))

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "need"):

cry (demand immediate action)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Sentence examples:

They need more bread

They need him to write the letter

They need to move

Derivation:

need (a condition requiring relief)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Have or feel a need for

Example:

always needing friends and money

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Sense 3

Meaning:

Require as useful, just, or proper

Example:

This intervention does not postulate a patient's consent

Synonyms:

ask; call for; demand; involve; necessitate; need; postulate; require; take

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Verb group:

claim; exact; take (take as an undesirable consequence of some event or state of affairs)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "need"):

claim; exact; take (take as an undesirable consequence of some event or state of affairs)

govern (require to be in a certain grammatical case, voice, or mood)

draw (require a specified depth for floating)

cost (require to lose, suffer, or sacrifice)

cry for; cry out for (need badly or desperately)

compel (necessitate or exact)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Sentence example:

They need him to write the letter

Derivation:

need (anything that is necessary but lacking)

Credits

 Context examples: 

A year seems very long to wait before I see them, but remind them that while we wait we may all work, so that these hard days need not be wasted.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

It needed a robust faith in the end to justify such tragic means.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But I need not be watched; I am well enough to be left alone.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

He never nipped Buck without cause, and he never failed to nip him when he stood in need of it.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

I need hide nothing from you.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Each closet needed but a glance, for all were empty, and all, by the dust that fell from their doors, had stood long unopened.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

“I need a caulker, for there's trouble on hand. And talking o' trouble, why did that doctor give me the chart, Jim?”

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Why, that requires not this preparation; ye need not have come thus far and dragged your captain to the shame of a defeat merely to prove yourselves cowards.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

“There is no need to go further,” said the Abbot.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

One told of his powder, six pounds of which were needed to throw a ball a thousand yards.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)