Seek vs Need - What's the difference?
seek | need |
(lb) To try to find, to look for, to search.
:
*{{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author=
, magazine=(American Scientist), title= (label) To inquire for; to ask for; to solicit; to beseech.
:
*Bible, (w) xi. 16
*:Others, tempting him, sought of him a sign.
*1960 , (Lobsang Rampa), :
*:“My, my! It is indeed a long way yet, look you!” said the pleasant woman of whom I sought directions.
(lb) To try to acquire or gain; to strive after; to aim at.
:
*1880 , , :
*:But persecution sought the lives of men of this character.
*1886 , Constantine Popoff, translation of (Leo Tolstoy)'s :
*:I can no longer seek fame or glory, nor can I help trying to get rid of my riches, which separate me from my fellow-creatures.
*
*:Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes.She put back a truant curl from her forehead where it had sought egress to the world, and looked him full in the face now, drawing a deep breath which caused the round of her bosom to lift the lace at her throat.
To go, move, travel (in a given direction).
:
*, Bk.V:
*:Ryght so he sought towarde Sandewyche where he founde before hym many galyard knyghtes
(lb) To try to reach or come to; to go to; to resort to.
*:
*:Seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nought.
*1726
*:Since great Ulysses sought the Phrygian plains
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 transitive terms the difference between seek and need
is that seek is to try to reach or come to; to go to; to resort to while need is to want strongly; to feel that one must have something.As a noun need is
a requirement for something.seek
English
Verb
Catherine Clabby
Focus on Everything, passage=Not long ago, it was difficult to produce photographs of tiny creatures with every part in focus.
(tr.), (Alexander Pope), ''(Homer)'s (Odyssey), Book II, line 33
Quotations
Synonyms
* look for * searchDerived terms
* (l) * (l) * (l) * (l) * (l)Anagrams
* English irregular verbsneed
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
