[ So named after Cleopatra, queen of Egypt. ] Either of two obelisks which were moved in ancient times from Heliopolis to Alexandria, one of which is now on the Thames Embankment in London, and the other in Central Park, in the City of New York.

☞ Some writers consider that only the obelisk now in Central Park is properly called Cleopatra's needle. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

. (Zool.) A dragon fly. See Darning needle, under Darn, v. t. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. A small slender hollow metallic tube, sharp-pointed at one end and fitted at the other end with an adapter of larger internal diameter, designed for introduction of liquids directly into the bloodstream or other parts of the body of an animal. [ PJC ]

2. a hypodermic needle{ 1 } together with an attached syringe. [ PJC ]

a. See Knock-kneed. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. See Knock-kneed. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. 1. Having knees;- used chiefly in composition; as, in-kneed; out-kneed; weak-kneed. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Bot.) Geniculated; forming an obtuse angle at the joints, like the knee when a little bent; as, kneed grass. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Having the legs bent inward so that the knees touch in walking. [ Written also knack-kneed. ]

n. A slender magnet suspended in a magnetic compass on a low-friction mounting; used to indicate the direction of the earth's magnetic pole. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. [ OE. need, neod, nede, AS. neád, n&ymacr_;d; akin to D. nood, G. not, noth, Icel. nauðr, Sw. & Dan. nöd, Goth. nauþs. ] 1. A state that requires supply or relief; pressing occasion for something; necessity; urgent want. [ 1913 Webster ]

And the city had no need of the sun. Rev. xxi. 23. [ 1913 Webster ]

I have no need to beg. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Be governed by your needs, not by your fancy. Jer. Taylor. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Want of the means of subsistence; poverty; indigence; destitution. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

Famine is in thy cheeks;
Need and oppression starveth in thine eyes. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. That which is needful; anything necessary to be done; (pl.) necessary things; business. [ Obs. ] Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Situation of need; peril; danger. [ Obs. ] Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- Exigency; emergency; strait; extremity; necessity; distress; destitution; poverty; indigence; want; penury. -- Need, Necessity. Necessity is stronger than need; it places us under positive compulsion. We are frequently under the necessity of going without that of which we stand very greatly in need. It is also with the corresponding adjectives; necessitous circumstances imply the direct pressure of suffering; needy circumstances, the want of aid or relief. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Needed; p. pr. & vb. n. Needing. ] [ See Need, n. Cf. AS. n&ymacr_;dan to force, Goth. nauþjan. ] To be in want of; to have cause or occasion for; to lack; to require, as supply or relief. [ 1913 Webster ]

Other creatures all day long
Rove idle, unemployed, and less need rest. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ With another verb, need is used like an auxiliary, generally in a negative sentence expressing requirement or obligation, and in this use it undergoes no change of termination in the third person singular of the present tense. “And the lender need not fear he shall be injured.” Anacharsis (Trans. ). [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To be wanted; to be necessary. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

When we have done it, we have done all that is in our power, and all that needs. Locke. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. Of necessity. See Needs. [ Obs. ] Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

adj. necessary; as, provided them with all needed equipment. Opposite of unnecessary.
Syn. -- needful, required, requisite. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. One who needs anything. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. 1. Full of need; in need or want; needy; distressing. [ Archaic ] Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

The needful time of trouble. Bk. of Com. Prayer. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Necessary for supply or relief; requisite. [ 1913 Webster ]

All things needful for defense abound. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

-- Need"ful*ly, adv. -- Need"ful*ness, n. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. [ From Needy. ] In a needy condition or manner; necessarily. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The state or quality of being needy; want; poverty; indigence. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OE. nedle, AS. n&aemacr_;dl; akin to D. neald, OS. nādla, G. nadel, OHG. nādal, nādala, Icel. nāl, Sw. nål, Dan. naal, and also to G. nähen to sew, OHG. nājan, L. nere to spin, Gr. ne`ein, and perh. to E. snare: cf. Gael. & Ir. snathad needle, Gael. snath thread, G. schnur string, cord. ] 1. A small instrument of steel, sharply pointed at one end, with an eye to receive a thread, -- used in sewing. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ In some needles (as for sewing machines) the eye is at the pointed end, but in ordinary needles it is at the blunt end. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. See Magnetic needle, under Magnetic. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A slender rod or wire used in knitting; a knitting needle; also, a hooked instrument which carries the thread or twine, and by means of which knots or loops are formed in the process of netting, knitting, or crocheting. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Bot.) One of the needle-shaped secondary leaves of pine trees. See Pinus. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. Any slender, pointed object, like a needle, as a pointed crystal, a sharp pinnacle of rock, an obelisk, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. A hypodermic needle; a syringe fitted with a hypodermic needle, used for injecting fluids into the body. [ Informal ] [ PJC ]

7. An injection of medicine from a hypodermic needle; a shot. [ PJC ]

Dipping needle. See under Dipping. --
Needle bar, the reciprocating bar to which the needle of a sewing machine is attached. --
Needle beam (Arch.), in shoring, the horizontal cross timber which goes through the wall or a pier, and upon which the weight of the wall rests, when a building is shored up to allow of alterations in the lower part. --
Needle furze (Bot.), a prickly leguminous plant of Western Europe; the petty whin (Genista Anglica). --
Needle gun, a firearm loaded at the breech with a cartridge carrying its own fulminate, which is exploded by driving a slender needle, or pin, into it. [ archaic ] --
Needle loom (Weaving), a loom in which the weft thread is carried through the shed by a long eye-pointed needle instead of by a shuttle. --
Needle ore (Min.), acicular bismuth; a sulphide of bismuth, lead, and copper occuring in acicular crystals; -- called also aikinite. --
Needle shell (Zool.), a sea urchin. --
Needle spar (Min.), aragonite. --
Needle telegraph, a telegraph in which the signals are given by the deflections of a magnetic needle to the right or to the left of a certain position. --
Sea needle (Zool.), the garfish. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. 1. To form in the shape of a needle; as, to needle crystals. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To tease (a person), especially repeatedly. [ PJC ]

3. To prod or goad (someone) into action by teasing or daring. [ PJC ]

v. i. To form needles; to crystallize in the form of needles. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A book-shaped needlecase, having leaves of cloth into which the needles are stuck. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A shrub (Hakea lissosperma) of eastern Australia, with pungent rigid needle-shaped leaves and white flowers.
Syn. -- needle bush, Hakea lissosperma. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. A case to keep needles. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. An article or articles created or assembled by needle and thread; needlework.
Syn. -- needlework. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

2. The art, process, or occupation of creating objects with needles, such as in crocheting, embroidery, quilting, or tapestry. [ PJC ]

n. (Zool.) (a) The European great pipefish (Siphostoma acus or Syngnathus acus); -- called also earl, and tanglefish. (b) The garfish. [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; pl. needlefuls As much thread as is used in a needle at one time. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Pointed as needles. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who makes or uses needles; also, a dealer in needles. Piers Plowman. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. 1. Having no need. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Weeping into the needless stream. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Not wanted; unnecessary; not requisite; as, needless labor; needless expenses. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Without sufficient cause; groundless; causeless. “Needless jealousy.” Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

-- Need"less*ly, adv. -- Need"less*ness, n. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Min.) Natrolite; -- called also needle zeolite. [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; pl. Needlewomen A woman who does needlework; a seamstress. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A large bushy shrub (Hakea leucoptera) of central and eastern Australia, with pungent pointed leaves and creamy white flowers.
Syn. -- needle wood, Hakea leucoptera. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. 1. Work executed with a needle; sewed work; sewing; embroidery, crocheting, quilting, or tapestry, etc.; also, the art, process, or occupation of creating objects with needles.
Syn. -- needlecraft. [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]

2. The combination of timber and plaster making the outside framework of some houses. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Like a needle or needles; as, a needly horn; a needly beard. R. D. Blackmore. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. [ AS. n&ymacr_;dlice. See Need. ] Necessarily; of necessity. [ Obs. ] hak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Something needed or wanted. pl. Outfit; necessary luggage. [ Archaic ] Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

Carrying each his needments. Wordsworth. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. [ Orig. gen. of need, used as an adverb. Cf. -wards. ] Of necessity; necessarily; indispensably; -- often with must, and equivalent to of need. [ 1913 Webster ]

A man must needs love mauger his head. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

And he must needs go through Samaria. John iv. 4. [ 1913 Webster ]

He would needs know the cause of his repulse. Sir J. Davies. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. Of necessity. [ Obs. ] Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. Of necessity. [ Obs. ] Drayton. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Compar. Needier superl. Neediest. ] 1. Distressed by want of the means of living; very poor; indigent; necessitous. [ 1913 Webster ]

Thou shalt open thy hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy in thy land. Deut. xv. 11. [ 1913 Webster ]

Spare the blushes of needy merit. Dr. T. Dwight. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Necessary; requisite. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Corn to make your needy bread. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

(Zool.) See Garfish (a). [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } n. See Snath. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Metal.) A small bar of gold and silver, either pure, or alloyed in some known proportion with copper, for trying the purity of articles of gold or silver by comparison of the streaks made by the article and the bar on a touchstone. [ 1913 Webster ]

See high.
See honorable.
See hopeful.
See hostile.
See hurt.
See hhurtful.
See hygienic.
See ideal.
See idle.
See illusory.
See imaginable.
See imaginative.
See immortal.
See implicit.
See important.
See impressible. See >Unimpressible.
See impressionable.
See improvable.
See impugnable.
See incidental.
See increasable.
See indifferent.
See indulgent.
See industrious.
See inflammable.
See influential.
See ingenious.
See ingenuous.
See inhabitable.
See injurious.
See inquisitive.
See instructive.
See intelligent.
See intelligible.
See intentional.
See interesting.
See interpretable.
See inventive.
See investigable.
See jealous.
See joyful.
See joyous.
See justifiable.
See kingly.
See knightly.
See knotty.
See knowable.
See laborious.
See ladylike.
See level.
See libidinous.
See lightsome.
See limber.
See lineal.
See logical.
See lordly.
See losable.
See lovable.
See lucent.
See luminous.
See lustrous.
See lusty.
See maidenly.
See makable.
See malleable.
See manageable.
See manful.
See manlike.
See manly.
See marketable.
See marriable.
See marriageable.
See marvelous.
See masculine.
See matchable.
See matronlike.
See meek.
See meet.
See melodious.
See mendable.
See mentionable.
See mercenary.
See merciable.
See meritable.
See merry.
See metaphorical.
See mighty.
See mild.
See military.
See mindful.
See mingleable.
See miraculous.
See miry.
See mitigable.
See modifiable.
See modish.
See moist.
See monkish.
See motherly.
See muscular.
See musical.
See mysterious.
See namable.
See native.
See navigable.
See needful.
See negotiable.
See niggard.
See noble.
See objectionable.
[ 1913 Webster ]

[ 1913 Webster ]

a. Having weak knees; hence, easily yielding; wanting resolution. H. James. [ 1913 Webster ]