α. 1700s–1800s need-be.
β. 1800s needs-be.
† need-ben.
Obsolete.
An essential or necessary reason; a necessity.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > will > necessity > condition of being necessary > [noun]
needOE
needfulnessa1400
necess?a1525
necessariness1552
requisiteness1566
necessitya1572
essence1605
essentialness1640
essentiality1646
necessitation1648
requirement1659
need-be1728
indispensability1793
indispensableness1833
indispensibleness1860
egence1865
requiredness1935
the mind > will > necessity > condition of being necessary > [noun] > that which is necessary > necessary reason
need-be1728
α.
β. 1802 J. Newton Let. 18 Nov. in Princeton Rev. (1839) Apr. 261 If we are ‘in heaviness’, there is a ‘needs be’ for it,—whether we know it or not.1849 Ladies' Repository Dec. 354/2 We should think it proper to exercise parental authority, if there were a needs-be for it.1871 S. S. Jones Northumberland 142 When yen has a needs-be tae pass owre near the place in the twilight.1894 Westm. Gaz. 27 Nov. 2/2 A penetrating insight into the needs-be of a finely touched nature.1728 P. Walker Life A. Peden (1827) 118 He afterwards saw a remarkable Providence in it, and a Need-be for it.
1791 Mrs. Unwin in R. Southey Wks. W. Cowper (1836) III. 55 There is no doubt but that there is a need-be for the manifold temptations to which they are exposed.
1838 M. F. Tupper Proverbial Philos. (1852) 22 Were there not a need-be of wisdom, nothing would be as it is.
a1847 T. Chalmers Lect. Epist. Paul to Romans (1874) 242/1 There was a need be that the threatened penalty should not be arrested, but have its course.
1870 M. F. Tupper Creed 2 These..did he deem The need-bes of religion and its scheme.
1897 E. W. Hamilton Outlaws of Marches ii There's nae need-be to miscall Agnes.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2003; most recently modified version published online December 2020).
<
n.1728