hungry

[ huhng-gree ]

adjective

, hun·gri·er, hun·gri·est.

1. having a desire, craving, or need for food; feeling hunger.

   Synonyms: ravenous

   Antonyms: satiated

2. indicating, characteristic of, or characterized by hunger:

   He approached the table with a hungry look.

3. strongly or eagerly desirous.
4. lacking needful or desirable elements; not fertile; poor:

   hungry land.

5. marked by a scarcity of food:

   The depression years were hungry times.

6. Informal. aggressively ambitious or competitive, as from a need to overcome poverty or past defeats:

   a hungry investment firm looking for wealthy clients.

hungry

/ ˈhʌŋɡrɪ /

adjective

1. desiring food
2. experiencing pain, weakness, or nausea through lack of food
3. postpositivefoll byfor having a craving, desire, or need (for)
4. expressing or appearing to express greed, craving, or desire
5. lacking fertility; poor
6. informal.
   1. greedy; grasping
   2. stingy; mean
7. (of timber) dry and bare

Derived Forms

• ˈhungriness, noun
• ˈhungrily, adverb

Other Words From

• hungri·ly adverb
• hungri·ness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of hungry¹

First recorded before 950; Middle English, Old English hungrig. See hunger, -y ¹

Synonym Study

Hungry, famished, starved describe a condition resulting from a lack of food. Hungry is a general word, expressing various degrees of eagerness or craving for food: hungry between meals; desperately hungry after a long fast; hungry as a bear. Famished denotes the condition of one reduced to actual suffering from want of food, but sometimes is used lightly or in an exaggerated statement: famished after being lost in a wilderness; simply famished ( hungry ). Starved denotes a condition resulting from long-continued lack or insufficiency of food, and implies enfeeblement, emaciation, or death (originally death from any cause, but now death from lack of food): He looks thin and starved. By the end of the terrible winter, thousands had starved ( to death ). It is also used as a humorous exaggeration: I only had two sandwiches, pie, and some milk, so I'm simply starved ( hungry ).

Example Sentences

Moguls disaffected with the Biden administration’s antitrust philosophy and meager attempts at corporate tax increases are already hungry for lower taxes, slashed regulations, revolving-door Cabinet members, more mergers, and more acquisitions.

From Slate

“People are starving in some areas. People are very hungry. They are fighting over bags of flour. There are just not enough supplies.”

From BBC

“Everyone was just cold and hungry all the time, worrying about the next meal.”

From Los Angeles Times

Manuel said there could be some mistakes by his team after weeks of inaction, but the Gauchos are healthy and hungry as the No. 1 seed in the Open Division.

From Los Angeles Times

“If you don’t eat the dinner,” her mother advised, “then you’re going to be hungry.”

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• eager
• greedy
• keen
• ravenous
• starved