| need | 1. A state that requires supply or relief; pressing occasion for something; necessity; urgent want. "And the city had no need of the sun." (Rev. Xxi. 23) "I have no need to beg." (Shak) "Be governed by your needs, not by your fancy." (Jer. Taylor) 2. Want of the means of subsistence; poverty; indigence; destitution. "Famine is in thy cheeks; Need and oppression starveth in thine eyes." (Shak) 3. That which is needful; anything necessary to be done; (pl) necessary things; business. 4. Situation of need; peril; danger. Synonym: 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. Origin: OE. Need, neod, nede, AS. Nead, n<ymac/d; akin to D. Nood, G. Not, noth, Icel. Nauthr, Sw. & Dan. Nod, Goth. Naups. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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| needle | 1. A small instrument of steel, sharply pointed at one end, with an eye to receive a thread, used in sewing. In some needles(as for sewing machines) the eye is at the pointed end, but in ordinary needles it is at the blunt end. 2. See Magnetic needle, under Magnetic. 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. 4. <botany> One of the needle-shaped secondary leaves of pine trees. See Pinus. 5. Any slender, pointed object, like a needle, as a pointed crystal, a sharp pinnacle of rock, an obelisk, etc. Dipping needle. See Dipping. Needle bar, the reciprocating bar to which the needle of a sewing machine is attached. Needle beam, to 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. <botany> Needle furze, the garfish. Origin: OE. Nedle, AS. Ndl; akin to D. Neald, OS. Nadla, G. Nadel, OHG. Nadal, nadala, Icel. Nal, Sw. Nal, Dan. Naal, and also to G. Nahen to sew, OHG. Najan, L. Nere to spin, Gr, and perh. To E. Snare: cf. Gael. & Ir. Snathad needle, Gael. Snath thread, G. Schnur string, cord. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| needle bath | A bath in which water is projected forcibly against the body in many very fine jets. (05 Mar 2000) |
| needle biopsy | Removal of a sample of tissue from the breast using a wide-core needle with suction. (09 Oct 1997) |
| needle culture | A culture produced by inserting an inoculating needle with inoculum down the centre of a solid medium contained in a test tube. Synonym: needle culture. (05 Mar 2000) |
| needle forceps | An instrument for grasping a needle in suturing. Synonym: needle forceps. (05 Mar 2000) |
| needle point tracing | A tracing of mandibular movements made by means of a device attached to the opposing arches; its shape resembles that of an arrowhead or a Gothic arch, and when the instrument's marking point is at the apex of the arch, the jaws are considered to be in centric relation. Synonym: arrow point tracing, Gothic arch tracing, Gothic arch, stylus tracing. (05 Mar 2000) |
| needle sharing | Usage of a single needle among two or more people for injecting drugs. Needle sharing is a high-risk behaviour for contracting infectious disease. (12 Dec 1998) |
| needle-exchange programs | Organised services for exchange of sterile needles and syringes used for injections as a potential means of reducing the transmission of infectious diseases. (12 Dec 1998) |
| needle-holder | An instrument for grasping a needle in suturing. Synonym: needle forceps. (05 Mar 2000) |
| needlefish | <zoology> The European great pipefich (Siphostoma, or Syngnathus, acus). Synonym: earl, and tanglefish. The garfish. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| needles | Sharp instruments used for puncturing or suturing. (12 Dec 1998) |
| Needles' split cast method | A procedure for placing indexed casts on an articulator to facilitate their removal and replacement on the instrument, the procedure of checking the ability of an articulator to receive or be adjusted to a maxillomandibular relation record. Synonym: Needles' split cast method. (05 Mar 2000) |
| Needles, Carl | <person> U.S. Paediatrician, *1935. See: Melnick-Needles syndrome. (05 Mar 2000) |
| Needles, J | <person> U.S. Dentist. See: Needles' split cast method. (05 Mar 2000) |
| certificate of need | A certificate issued by a governmental body to an individual or organization proposing to construct or modify a health facility, or to offer a new or different service. The process of issuing the certificate is also included. (12 Dec 1998) |
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