needful
/ˈniːdfʊl
/ /ˈniːdf(ə)l/adjective
1 formal Necessary; requisite: a further word was needful...
- The roads are also needful for safe delivery of agricultural inputs to the small-scale farmers themselves.
- This is a kind of cultural fostering in which the role of parents is reduced to agents providing the money to buy in what is needful for a rich and complete childhood.
- It was hardly needful for Katy to answer with her lips a question to which her tell-tale cheeks had made instant reply.
2 dated Needy: she gave her money away to needful people...
- I'd like to think that Elvis was there for all who were needful, or hard of heart.
- The proposed minimum wage boost would hurt the very ones who are most needful of jobs - the poor.
- Generous to a fault (and also needful to an extreme), Nouwen never quite found a place to call home except in his final years with the disabled.
noun (the needful)
What is necessary: I call upon the authorities to do the needful...
- At this stage - and for less money - I'm prepared to take the job and hire six graduates from Napier and Heriot Watt Universities to do the needful.
- Even had he the benefit of the scaffolding erected behind Firhill's western end, it is doubtful whether he would have been able to do the needful.
- The game was just two minutes old when Hawks were lured offside under their own posts and Bernard Hennessey did the needful.
Derivatives
needfully
- On the presidential campaign trail, though, it might be more accurate to describe him as needfully verbose.
- She brushed the stuffed animals onto the floor and drew him needfully into her arms.
needfulness
- So many times kids question the needfulness of things they study.
- The argument should be about the needfulness and the efficacy of the specific reforms that the government is carrying out.
- In their third encounter, Sarah seeks out Eddie at the bus station cafe and wordlessly communicates her needfulness.