Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Being in need; impoverished;
- adjective Wanting or needing affection, attention, or reassurance, especially to an excessive degree.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Needful; requisite; necessary.
- Necessitous; indigent; very poor.
- Synonyms Needy, Necessitous. Needy seems to apply primarily to the person, but also to the condition; necessitous to the condition and rarely to the person. Needy implies a more permanent state than necessitous; a necessitous condition is more painful and urgent than a needy condition.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Distressed by want of the means of living; very poor; indigent; necessitous.
- adjective obsolete Necessary; requisite.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective In
need ,poor . - adjective Desiring constant
affirmation , lacking in self confidence
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun needy people collectively
- adjective poor enough to need help from others
- adjective demanding or needing attention, affection, or reassurance to an excessive degree
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word needy.
Examples
-
What gets me is when a real-life scientist friend says something uninformed, or vacuous, or just plain needy and I desperately want to refer them to the DrugMonkey blog.
On the Nature of Bloggy Relationships Candid Engineer 2009
-
Economists and poverty researchers say multiple factors may account for the increase in needy college graduates: Not only a rise in college attendance, but also a shortage of high-end jobs, stagnant wages and eroding health benefits, downsizing and outsourcing — as well as the growing number of immigrants and single mothers.
Study: Growing Number of College Graduates Classified as Poor | Impact Lab 2007
-
Its message of compassion for the needy is exactly what people who are living with HIV/AIDS need.
Seizing Tomorrow 2007
-
How do you separate the needy from the lazies and freeloaders?
-
Swatter asks, How do you separate the needy from the lazies and freeloaders?
-
Cutting programs for the Veterans and the needy is not going to be very popular at home and a lot of these guys are going to have to face reelection in 2006.
-
What I propose is to invest our foreign aid dollars in needy developing countries through the direction and management of private enterprise ... not from politician to politician or government agency to government agency.
-
An exhortation to praise God, who, by the gracious and faithful exercise of His power in goodness to the needy, is alone worthy of implicit trust.
-
We’ve got to reform to GOV2. 0 … the only way we’ll be able to keep take care of the needy is if we automate the government.
Matthew Yglesias » Arizona Eliminating Children’s Health Care Program 2010
-
It’s really simple, if the Salracist Army chooses to pick and choose who amongst the needy is worthy, those of us blessed enough to donate instead of receive from a charity should make sure not only the bellringers, but every arm of the “charity” receive no funding from our pockets.
Matthew Yglesias » Toy Drives Checking Immigration Status of Children 2009
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.