Word.ws English Dictionary

did the needful

did the needful is the simple past of do the needful.

Meaning of do the needful

Verb

do the needful (third-person singular simple present does the needful, present participle doing the needful, simple past did the needful, past participle done the needful)

  1. (India, Nigeria, UK, dated, idiomatic) To do what is necessary or required.
    • My father had, generally speaking, his temper under complete self command, and his anger rarely indicated itself by words, except in a sort of dry testy manner to those who had displeased him. He never used threats or expressions of loud resentment. All was arranged with him on system and it was...1817, Sir Walter Scott, chapter 2, in Rob Roy, volume 1, Edinburgh: James Ballantyne and Co., published 1818, page 24

Questions about did the needful

What is did the needful the simple past of?
Did the needful is the simple past of do the needful.

Words near did the needful in the dictionary

  1. did the job
  2. did the journal factory explode
  3. did the math
  4. did the nasties
  5. did the nasty
  6. did the needful
  7. did the power of good
  8. did the right thing
  9. did the rounds
  10. did the talking
  11. did the trick

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: did the needful (page history and authors); do the needful (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “did the needful.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/did_the_needful. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.