Need, n.
Etymology: [OE. need, neod, nede, AS. neád, nyd; akin to D. nood, G. not, noth, Icel. nauedhr, Sw. & Dan. nöd, Goth. naups.]
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.
1 more senses
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.
3 other Webster entries under this spelling
Need, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Needed; p. pr. & vb. n. Needing.]
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.
Note: 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, v. i.
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, adv.
Of necessity. See Needs. [Obs.] Chaucer.
Shades of meaning
Fernald has no entry of its own for need; he lists it under necessity, poverty.
Where he writes about it:
Need and want always imply a lack; necessity may be used in this sense, but in the higher philosophical sense necessity simply denotes the exclusion of any alternative either in thought or fact; righteousness is a necessity (not a need) of the divine nature. — from necessity
Need suggests the possibility of supplying the deficiency which want expresses; to speak of a person's want of decision merely points out a weakness in his character; to say that he has need of decision implies that he can exercise or attain it. — from necessity
As applied to a deficiency, necessity is more imperative than need; a weary person is in need of rest; when rest becomes a necessity he has no choice but to stop work. — from necessity