Needy \Need"y\, a. [Compar. Needier; superl. Neediest.]

1. Distressed by want of the means of living; very poor; indigent; necessitous. [1913 Webster]

Thou shalt open thy hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy in thy land. --Deut. xv. 11. [1913 Webster]

Spare the blushes of needy merit. --Dr. T. Dwight. [1913 Webster]

2. Necessary; requisite. [Obs.]

[1913 Webster]

Corn to make your needy bread. --Shak. [1913 Webster] Neeld

Source: The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
 

53 Moby Thesaurus words for "needy": beggared, beggarly, bereaved, bereft, chronic poverty area, dead, depressed population, deprived, destitute, disadvantaged, down-and-out, flat, fleeced, ghetto-dwellers, ghettoized, hard up, impecunious, impoverished, in need, in rags, in reduced circumstances, in want, indigent, insolvent, mendicant, necessitous, on relief, on welfare, out at elbows, pauperized, penniless, penurious, pinched, poor, poverty-stricken, starveling, strapped, stripped, the disadvantaged, the distressed, the down-and-out, the forgotten man, the have-nots, the needy, the other America, the poor, the underprivileged, the urban poor, underdeveloped nation, underprivileged, unprosperous, up against it, welfare rolls

Source: Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
 

needy adj : poor enough to need help from others [syn: destitute, impoverished, indigent, necessitous, poverty-stricken] [also: neediest, needier]

Source: WordNet (r) 2.0
 

Needy \Need"y\, a. [Compar. Needer; superl. Neediest.]

1. Distressed by want of the means of living; very por; indigent; necessitous.

Thou shalt open thy hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy in thy land. --Deut. xv. 11.

Spare the bluches of needly merit. --Dr. T. Dwight.

2. Necessary; requiste. [Obs.]

Corn to make your needy bread. --Shak.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)