Definition of "need" []

• A condition or situation in which something is required or wanted: crops in need of water; a need for affection. (noun)
• Something required or wanted; a requisite: "Those of us who led the charge for these women's issues ... shared a common vision in the needs of women” ( Olympia Snowe). (noun)
• Necessity; obligation: There is no need for you to go. (noun)
• A condition of poverty or misfortune: The family is in dire need. (noun)
• To be under the necessity of or the obligation to: They need not come. (auxiliary-verb)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "However, as president we need a leader who can bring people together and get things done for the good of all Americans, that is why we * need* Obama."
• "But it's not the sex or the kid who has a baby at 17 or the fact that people who need to can get divorced, it's that you don't *need* a reason to get divorced anymore, and the sex outside of marriage is *expected* and that it's not about helping someone through a bad time it's about redefining the "bad time" as something good."
• "If I could be sure that all parents who opt their kids out of the courses would teach them what they need to know -- not what the parents want them to know, but *need* to know, then I wouldn't have said what I said."