Expect vs Need - What's the difference?
expect | need |
To look for (mentally); to look forward to, as to something that is believed to be about to happen or come; to have a previous apprehension of, whether of good or evil; to look for with some confidence; to anticipate; -- often followed by an infinitive, sometimes by a clause (with, or without, that).
*, chapter=13
, title= To consider obligatory or required.
To consider reasonably due.
To be pregnant, to consider a baby due.
(obsolete) To wait for; to await.
* (rfdate) (William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616):
*1825 , (Walter Scott), , A. and C. Black (1868), 24-25:
(obsolete) To wait; to stay.
A requirement for something.
* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
* (Jeremy Taylor) (1613–1677)
*{{quote-magazine, date=2014-06-14, volume=411, issue=8891, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= Something required.
Lack of means of subsistence; poverty; indigence; destitution.
* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
To be necessary (to someone).
* , II.ix:
(label) To have an absolute requirement for.
* {{quote-news, year=2011, date=October 1, author=Tom Fordyce, work=BBC Sport
, title= (label) To want strongly; to feel that one must have something.
* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author=(Henry Petroski)
, title= (label) To be obliged or required (to do something).
(label) To be required; to be necessary.
* (John Locke) (1632-1705)
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-28, author=(Joris Luyendijk)
, volume=189, issue=3, page=21, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title=
In obsolete transitive terms the difference between expect and need
is that expect is to wait for; to await while need is to be necessary (to someone).As verbs the difference between expect and need
is that expect is to look for (mentally); to look forward to, as to something that is believed to be about to happen or come; to have a previous apprehension of, whether of good or evil; to look for with some confidence; to anticipate; -- often followed by an infinitive, sometimes by a clause (with, or without, that) while need is to be necessary (to someone).As a noun need is
a requirement for something.expect
English
(Webster 1913)Verb
(en verb)The Mirror and the Lamp, passage=“[…] They talk of you as if you were Croesus—and I expect the beggars sponge on you unconscionably.” And Vickers launched forth into a tirade very different from his platform utterances. He spoke with extreme contempt of the dense stupidity exhibited on all occasions by the working classes.}}
- Let's in, and there expect their coming.
- The knight fixed his eyes on the opening with breathless anxiety, and continuing to kneel in the attitude of devotion which the place and scene required, expected the consequence of these preparations.
- (Sandys)
Usage notes
* Expect'' is a mental act and has always a reference to the future, to some coming event; as a person expects to die, or he expects to survive. ''Think]]'' and ''believe'' have reference to the past and present, as well as to the future; as I think the mail has arrived; I believe he came home yesterday, that he is he is at home now. There is a not uncommon use of ''expect'', which is a confusion of the two; as, I expect the mail has arrived; I expect he is at home. This misuse should be avoided. ''[[await, Await'' is a physical or moral act. We await that which, when it comes, will affect us personally. We expect what may, or may not, interest us personally. See ''anticipate . * This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive . SeeSynonyms
* anticipate * look for * await * hopeDerived terms
* expected adjective * expecting adjective * unexpectedStatistics
*External links
* * *Anagrams
* except 1000 English basic wordsneed
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) need, nede, partly from (etyl) . More at (l). Old norse nauð(r) ("powerty,distress, lack of")Noun
(en noun)- I have no need to beg.
- Be governed by your needs , not by your fancy.
It's a gas, passage=One of the hidden glories of Victorian engineering is proper drains.
- Famine is in thy cheeks; / Need and oppression starveth in thine eyes.
Usage notes
* Adjectives often used with "need": urgent, dire, desperate, strong, unmet, bad, basic, critical, essential, big, terrible, modest, elementary, daily, everyday, special, educational, environmental, human, personal, financial, emotional, medical, nutritional, spiritual, public, developmental, organizational, legal, fundamental, audio-visual, psychological, corporate, societal, psychosocial, functional, additional, caloric, private, monetary, physiological, mental.Derived terms
(Derived terms) * if need be * in need, in need of; a friend in need is a friend indeed * need-based * needful, needfully, needfulness * needless, needlessly, needlessness * needy, needily, needinessEtymology 2
From (etyl) neden, from (etyl) .Verb
(en verb)- More ample spirit, then hitherto was wount, / Here needes me.
Rugby World Cup 2011: England 16-12 Scotland, passage=Scotland needed a victory by eight points to have a realistic chance of progressing to the knock-out stages, and for long periods of a ferocious contest looked as if they might pull it off.}}
Geothermal Energy, volume=101, issue=4, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Energy has seldom been found where we need it when we want it. Ancient nomads, wishing to ward off the evening chill and enjoy a meal around a campfire, had to collect wood and then spend time and effort coaxing the heat of friction out from between sticks to kindle a flame. With more settled people, animals were harnessed to capstans or caged in treadmills to turn grist into meal.}}
- When we have done it, we have done all that is in our power, and all that needs .
Our banks are out of control, passage=Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic who still resists the idea that something drastic needs to happen for him to turn his life around.}}
Usage notes
* The verb is construed in a few different ways: ** With a direct object, as in “I need your help.” ** With a to -infinitive, as in “I need to go.” Here, the subject of serves implicitly as the subject of the infinitive. ** With a clause of the form “for [object] to [verb phrase]”, or simply “[object] to [verb phrase]” as in “I need for this to happen” or “I need this to happen.” In both variants, the object serves as the subject of the infinitive. ** As a modal verb, with a bare infinitive; in negative polarity contexts, such as questions (“Need I say more?”), with negative expressions such as not (“It need not happen today”; “No one need ever know”), and with similar constructions (“There need only be a few”; “it need be signed only by the president”; “I need hardly explain the error”). . ** With a gerund-participle, as in “The car needs washing”, or (in certain dialects) with a past participle, as in “The car needs washed”[http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003106.html] (both meaning roughly “The car needs to be washed”). ** With a direct object and a predicative complement, as in “We need everyone here on time” (meaning roughly “We need everyone to be here on time”) or “I need it gone” (meaning roughly “I need it to be gone”). ** In certain dialects, and colloquially in certain others, with an unmarked reflexive pronoun, as in “I need me a car.” * A sentence such as “I need you to sit down” or “you need to sit down” is more polite than the bare command “sit down”, but less polite than “please sit down”. It is considered somewhat condescending and infantilizing, hence dubbed by some “the kindergarten imperative”, but is quite common in American usage.“You Need To Read This: How need to vanquished have to, must, and should.” by Ben Yagoda, Slate, July 17, 2006