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

ing. [Obs.] Where the heart is forestalled with misopinion, ablative directions are found needful to unteach error, ere we can learn truth. Bp. Hall.

want or affords ease, refreshment, or convenience; anything furnished which is desired or needful; -- often in the plural; as, the accomodations -- that is, lodgings and food -- at an inn. Sir W. Scott.

mmon practice to adjourn the reformation of their lives to a further time. Barrow. 'Tis a needful fitness That we adjourn this court till further day. Shak.

words. It was a gentle business, and becoming The action of good women. Shak. Bestow Your needful counsel to our business. Shak.

, any being created with life; an animal; a man. He asked water, a creature so common and needful that it was against the law of nature to deny him. Fuller. God's first creature was light. Bacon. On earth, join, all ye creatures, to extol Him first, him last, him midst, and without end. Milton. And most attractive is t…

Superabundant; excessive; as, lavish spirits. Let her have needful, but not lavish, means. Shak.

To supply or to things needful; esp., to supply consolation or remedies. Matt. xxv. 44. Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased Shak.

To be needful or of use. [Obs.] As for my name, it mistereth not to tell. Spenser.

Unprovided with needful or desirable accessories, means of sustenance, etc.; destitute; unaided; bare. Patriots who had exposed themselves for the public, and whom they say now left naked. Milton.

That which is needful; anything necessary to be done; (pl.) necessary things; business. [Obs.] Chaucer.

Need; needful business. [Obs.] Chaucer.

To lay or place at rest; to quiet. Your piety has paid All needful rites, to rest my wandering shade. Dryden.

otect besiegers; a testudo. [Obs.] They had also all manner of gynes [engines] . . . that needful is [in] taking or sieging of castle or of city, as snails, that was naught else but hollow pavises and targets, under the which men, when they fought, were heled [protected], . . . as the snail is in his house; therefore t…