needful
[need-fuh l]
- necessary or required: needful supplies.
- needy.
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- the needful, Slang. money, especially immediately available cash: They haven't the needful for a car right now.
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Origin of needful
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for needful
Historical Examples
It was needful to implore them since they found the assurance so difficult to believe.
The Conquest of FearBasil King
It is needful, therefore, to understand it as accurately as may be, however we may judge it.
The Man ShakespeareFrank Harris
Money was needful to extricate him from this drudgery and let him follow up his aspirations.
Heroes of the TelegraphJ. Munro
I have lodged the needful in the bank, to purchase a commission for you, my son.
Tales And Novels, Volume 9 (of 10)Maria Edgeworth
The seamen in return purvey the needful luxuries for lumber-camps.
needful
- necessary; needed; required
- archaic needy; poverty-stricken
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- the needful informal money or fundsdo you have the needful?
- do the needful to perform a necessary task
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for needful
adj.
late 12c., niedfulle, "needy," from need (n.) + -ful. Meaning "characterized by need" is from mid-13c.; meaning "indispensable" is from mid-14c.; noun meaning "what is necessary" is from 1709. Colloquial sense of "cash" is recorded from 1774 in phrase the needful "money." Related: Needfully.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper