English Explanatory Dictionary

needly

English dictionary entry

Meanings

adv
  1. Zealously; carefully; earnestly.
adv
  1. Necessarily; of necessity.
  2. Urgently.
adj
  1. Like a needle or needles.

Pronunciation

/ˈniːd.li/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-needly1.wav /ˈniː.dəl.i/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-needly2.wav

Word forms

needly needlier more needly needliest most needly

Etymology

From Middle English needely, neodliche, from Old English nēodlīċe (“eagerly, earnestly, carefully, zealously, diligently, sedulously; greatly”); equivalent to need (“desire”) + -ly. Cognate with Old Saxon niudlīko (“zealously, carefully”), German niedlich (“desirable, appealing, lovely, cute”).

Synonyms

acicular
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on N Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary