NEEDY (needier, neediest)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: needier    , neediest   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does needy mean? 

• NEEDY (noun)
  The noun NEEDY has 1 sense:

1. needy people collectively

  Familiarity information: NEEDY used as a noun is very rare.

• NEEDY (adjective)
  The adjective NEEDY has 2 senses:

1. poor enough to need help from others

2. demanding or needing attention, affection, or reassurance to an excessive degree

  Familiarity information: NEEDY used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• NEEDY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Needy people collectively

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Context example:

they try to help the needy

Hypernyms ("needy" is a kind of...):

poor; poor people (people without possessions or wealth (considered as a group))

• NEEDY (adjective)

Comparative: needier   
Superlative: neediest   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Poor enough to need help from others

Synonyms:

destitute; impoverished; indigent; necessitous; needy; poverty-stricken

Similar:

poor (having little money or few possessions)

Derivation:

need (a state of extreme poverty or destitution)

neediness (a state of extreme poverty)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Demanding or needing attention, affection, or reassurance to an excessive degree

Similar:

demanding (requiring more than usually expected or thought due; especially great patience and effort and skill)

Derivation:

neediness (the quality of needing attention and affection and reassurance to a marked degree)

 Context examples 

What is over and above your reckoning you may take off from your charges to the next needy knight who comes this way.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I could wish it done as soon as it can be done, Wickfield, said Doctor Strong, for Jack Maldon is needy, and idle; and of those two bad things, worse things sometimes come.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

With them also were the pick of the Gascon chivalry—the old Duc d'Armagnac, his nephew Lord d'Albret, brooding and scowling over his wrongs, the giant Oliver de Clisson, the Captal de Buch, pink of knighthood, the sprightly Sir Perducas d'Albret, the red-bearded Lord d'Esparre, and a long train of needy and grasping border nobles, with long pedigrees and short purses, who had come down from their hill-side strongholds, all hungering for the spoils and the ransoms of Spain.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)