Hungry Definition & Meaning

American

British

Related Words

Other Word Forms

Etymology

Examples

Related Words

Synonyms hungry American [huhng-gree] / ˈhʌŋ gri /

adjective

hungrier, hungriest

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 British / ˈhʌŋɡrɪ /

adjective

1. desiring food

2. experiencing pain, weakness, or nausea through lack of food

3. 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

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Related Words

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 ).

Other Word Forms

• hungrily adverb
• hungriness noun

Etymology

Origin of hungry

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

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

The Oscars ceremonies are long, and he must have been hungry, because looking at photos, Jordan appears to have ordered the 3x3 burger - three beef patties and three slices of cheese.

From BBC

He gazed at me with such a hungry expression.

From Literature

How I’m not brave, I’m not even honest, but what I am is hungry.

From Literature

He was likely hungry after the ceremony, where folks in the audience had to make do during the show with a “Moderately Happy Meal™” from host Conan O’Brien.

From Los Angeles Times

“We are in such a delicate situation — with people going hungry, so many shortages — that whatever news of a change gives us hope,” Díaz said following news of the U.S.-Cuban talks.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• eager
• greedy
• keen
• ravenous
• starved

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.