Needly

//ˈniːd.li// adj, adv, slang

adj, adv, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Like a needle or needles. informal

    "a needly horn"

Adverb
  1. 1
    Zealously; carefully; earnestly. archaic
  2. 2
    Necessarily; of necessity. archaic

    "Or if sower woe delights in fellowship, And needly will be rankt with other griefes"

  3. 3
    Urgently. archaic

Synonyms

All synonyms
acicularacicularurgenturgent

Example

More examples

"Or if sower woe delights in fellowship, And needly will be rankt with other griefes"

Etymology

Etymology 1

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”).

Etymology 2

From Middle English needely, nedelich, from Old English *nīedlīċe (“necessarily”), from nīedlīc (“necessary”); equivalent to need (“necessity, need”) + -ly. Merged with Etymology 1 above. Cognate with Middle Dutch nodelike, Middle Low German nōtliken, Middle High German nōtliche.

Etymology 3

From needle + -y.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.