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Pressing vs Needful - What's the difference?

pressing | needful | Synonyms |

As adjectives the difference between pressing and needful

is that pressing is needing urgent attention while needful is needed; necessary; mandatory; requisite; indispensible.

As nouns the difference between pressing and needful

is that pressing is the application of pressure by a press or other means while needful is anything necessary or requisite.

As a verb pressing

is present participle of lang=en.

pressing

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • 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)[http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/jan/02/argentina-britain-hand-back-falklands]
  • 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 , , 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.”
  • Insistent, earnest, or persistent.
  • * 1891 , , The Picture of Dorian Gray , ch. 2,
  • You are very pressing , Basil, but I am afraid I must go.
  • * 1908 , , "The Duel,"
  • He was pressing and persuasive.

    Derived terms

    * pressingly * pressingness

    Quotations

    *

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The application of pressure by a press or other means.
  • A metal or plastic part made with a press.
  • The process of improving the appearance of clothing by improving creases and removing wrinkles with a press or an iron.
  • 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.
  • The extraction of juice from fruit using a press.
  • A phonograph record; a number of records pressed at the same time.
  • Urgent insistence.
  • Verb

    (head)
  • needful

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Needed; necessary; mandatory; requisite; indispensible.
  • * 1898 , , (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.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Anything necessary or requisite.
  • Ready money; wherewithal.
  • Usage notes

    (Do the needful) Commonly found in phrases such as "do the needful" or "please do the needful"; which occur commonly in Indian English but are held as archaic in other dialects; nonetheless being heard more and more by speakers of said dialects in their interactions with speakers of Indian English. This has to some extent lead to these phrases being seen as stereotypical of Indian English and used in a parodying context by speakers of other dialects, some of whom may find their usage odd and/or pretentious.

    Derived terms

    * do the needful