Word.ws English Dictionary

needly

/ˈniːd.li/

needly adverb: zealously; carefully; earnestly.

Adverb (1)

needly (comparative needlier or more needly, superlative needliest or most needly)

  1. (archaic) Zealously; carefully; earnestly.

Adverb (2)

needly (comparative needlier or more needly, superlative needliest or most needly)

  1. (archaic) Necessarily; of necessity.
    • Or if sower woe delights in fellowship,
      And needly will be rankt with other griefesc. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
  2. (archaic) Urgently.

Adjective

IPA/ˈniː.dəl.i/

needly (comparative needlier or more needly, superlative needliest or most needly)

  1. (informal) Like a needle or needles.
    • a needly horn
    • needly beard1869, R[ichard] D[oddridge] Blackmore, chapter XXIII, in Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Sampson Low, Son, & Marston, […], →OCLC
    Synonyms:
    acicular

Synonyms of needly

Forms of needly

Adverb
comparativeneedlier
comparativemore needly
superlativeneedliest
superlativemost needly
Adjective
comparativeneedlier
comparativemore needly
superlativeneedliest
superlativemost needly

Origin of needly

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”).

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.

From needle + -y.

Questions about needly

What does needly mean?
Needly means zealously; carefully; earnestly.
What part of speech is needly?
Needly can be an adverb or an adjective.
How do you pronounce needly?
Needly is pronounced /ˈniːd.li/.

Words near needly in the dictionary

  1. needlier
  2. needliest
  3. needling
  4. needlingly
  5. needlings
  6. needly
  7. needment
  8. needments
  9. needn't
  10. needn't've
  11. needna

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: needly (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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