Need
(Need), adv. Of necessity. See Needs. [Obs.] Chaucer.
Needer
(Need"er) n. One who needs anything. Shak.
Needful
(Need"ful) a.
1. Full of need; in need or want; needy; distressing. [Archaic] Chaucer.
The needful time of trouble.
Bk. of Com. Prayer. 2. Necessary for supply or relief; requisite.
All things needful for defense abound.
Dryden. — Need"ful*ly, adv. — Need"ful*ness, n.
Needily
(Need"i*ly) adv. [From Needy.] In a needy condition or manner; necessarily. Chaucer.
Neediness
(Need"i*ness), n. The state or quality of being needy; want; poverty; indigence.
Needle
(Nee"dle) n. [OE. nedle, AS. ndl; akin to D. neald, OS. nadla, G. nadel, OHG. nadal, nadala,
Icel. nal, Sw. nål, Dan. naal, and also to G. nähen to sew, OHG. najan, L. nere to spin, Gr. 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.
In some needles(as for sewing machines) the eye is at the pointed end, but in ordinary needles it is at
the blunt end.
2. See Magnetic needle, under Magnetic.
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.
4. (Bot.) One of the needle-shaped secondary leaves of pine trees. See Pinus.
5. Any slender, pointed object, like a needle, as a pointed crystal, a sharp pinnacle of rock, an obelisk,
etc.
Dipping needle. See under Dipping. — Needle bar, the reciprocating bar to which the needle of a
sewing machine is attached. — Needle beam (Arch.), to 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. — 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 (Zoöl.), 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
(Zoöl.), the garfish.
Needle
(Nee"dle), v. t. To form in the shape of a needle; as, to needle crystals.
