Need (nēd), n. [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. Chaucer.
4. Situation of need; peril; danger. 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.