Search the Dictionary

Want of ease; discomfort; misery. [Obs.] Chaucer.

Want of esteem; disrespect. Johnson.

Want of faith; distrust. "[Anger] born of your misfaith." Tennyson.

Bad government; want of government. Shak.

To discover the absence or omission of; to feel the want of; to mourn the loss of; to want. Shak. Neither missed we anything ... Nothing was missed of all that pertained unto him. 1 Sam. xxv. 15, 21. What by me thou hast lost, thou least shalt miss. Milton. To miss stays. (Naut.) See under Stay.

Absent from the place where it was expected to be found; lost; wanting; not present when called or looked for. Neither was there aught missing unto them. 1 Sam. xxv. 7. For a time caught up to God, as once Moses was in the mount, and missing long. Milton.

Want of confidence or trust; suspicion; distrust. Milton.

Any irksome sameness, or want of variety. At sea, everything that breaks the monotony of the surrounding expanse attracts attention. W. Irving.

To propose; to move. [Obs.] I want friends to motion such a matter. Burton.

one's position; not unnatural in feelings. To leave his wife, to leave his babes, ... He wants the natural touch. Shak.

and near, at a distance and close by; throughout a whole region. -- To come near to, to want but little of; to approximate to. "Such a sum he found would go near to ruin him." Addison. -- Near the wind (Naut.), close to the wind; closehauled.

In a state of want; necessitous. [Obs.] Shak.

Necessitousness; want. Sir M. Hale.

The condition of being needy or necessitous; pressing need; indigence; want. Urge the necessity and state of times. Shak. The extreme poverty and necessity his majesty was in. Clarendon.

state that requires supply or relief; pressing occasion for something; necessity; urgent want. And the city had no need of the sun. Rev. xxi. 23. I have no need to beg. Shak. Be governed by your needs, not by your fancy. Jer. Taylor.

Full of need; in need or want; needy; distressing. [Archaic] Chaucer. The needful time of trouble. Bk. of Com. Prayer.

The state or quality of being needy; want; poverty; indigence.

Not wanted; unnecessary; not requiste; as, needless labor; needless expenses.

Something needed or wanted. pl.

Distressed by want of the means of living; very por; indigent; necessitous. Thou shalt open thy hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy in thy land. Deut. xv. 11. Spare the bluches of needly merit. Dr. T. Dwight.