different between pressing vs needful

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?p??s??/

Adjective

pressing (comparative more pressing, superlative most pressing)

1. Needing urgent attention.
   • 2013, Luke Harding and Uki Goni, Argentina urges UK to hand back Falklands and 'end colonialism' (in The Guardian, 3 January 2013)[1]

     Argentinians support the "Malvinas" cause, which is written into the constitution. But they are also worried about pressing economic problems such as inflation, rising crime and corruption.

   • 1841, Charles Dickens, Barnaby Rudge, ch. 75,

     “I come on business.—Private,” he added, with a glance at the man who stood looking on, “and very pressing business.”

2. Insistent, earnest, or persistent.
   • 1891, Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, ch. 2,

     You are very pressing, Basil, but I am afraid I must go.

   • 1908, Joseph Conrad, "The Duel,"

     He was pressing and persuasive.

Quotations

• For more quotations using this term, see Citations:pressing.

Derived terms

• pressingly
• pressingness

Translations

Noun

pressing (plural pressings)

1. The application of pressure by a press or other means.
2. A metal or plastic part made with a press.
3. The process of improving the appearance of clothing by improving creases and removing wrinkles with a press or an iron.
4. A memento preserved by pressing, folding, or drying between the leaves of a flat container, book, or folio. Usually done with a flower, ribbon, letter, or other soft, small keepsake.
5. The extraction of juice from fruit using a press.
6. A phonograph record; a number of records pressed at the same time.
7. Urgent insistence.

Verb

pressing

1. present participle of press

Anagrams

• Persings, Spigners, spersing, springes

French

Etymology

A pseudo-anglicism.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p??.si?/, /p?e.si?/

Noun

pressing m (plural pressings)

1. dry cleaning shop, a dry-cleaner's

Italian

Noun

pressing m (invariable)

1. (sports, especially soccer) Continuous and pressing action that does not allow the opposing team to catch its breath, aiming to remove the ball from its possession
2. (figuratively, transferred sense) Pressing (application of pressure)

English

Alternative forms

• nedefull, needfull

Etymology

From Middle English needeful, nedeful, from Old English n?odful (“necessary; earnest; zealous”). Equivalent to need +? -ful. Cognate with Dutch noodvol, German notvoll.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?ni?df?l/
• Hyphenation: need?ful

Adjective

needful (comparative more needful, superlative most needful)

1. Needed; necessary; mandatory; requisite; indispensible.

   Antonym: needless

   • 1898, J. Meade Falkner, Moonfleet Chapter 5

     So I went to keep house with him at the Why Not? and my aunt sent down my bag of clothes, and would have made over to Elzevir the pittance that my father left for my keep, but he said it was not needful, and he would have none of it.

2. (archaic) Needy; in need.
   • 1860, Union Society of Savannah, Minutes of the Union Society (page 114)

     […] where his active benevolence was ever found in cheerful co-operation for the cause of the humble & needful orphan […]

Derived terms

• needfully
• needfulness

Noun

needful (plural needfuls)

1. (slang) Ready money; wherewithal.
2. (India, chiefly archaic in other dialects) Anything necessary or requisite.

Usage notes

Commonly found in phrases such as "kindly do the needful", which occurs commonly in Indian English but is held as archaic in other dialects. Global interactions between English speakers have to some extent led to these phrases being seen as stereotypical of Indian English and parodied by speakers of other dialects.

Derived terms

• do the needful

Anagrams

• Neufeld