hungry meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

hungry

adj

UK, US /ˈhʌŋ.ɡɹi/ · Northern-England /ˈhʊŋɡɹi/

Etymology From Middle English hungry, from Old English hungriġ, from Proto-West Germanic *hungrug, from Proto-Germanic *hungrugaz (“hungry”); equivalent to hunger + -y. Cognate with West Frisian hongerich (“hungry”), Dutch hongerig (“hungry”), German hungrig (“hungry”), Swedish hungrig (“hungry”), Icelandic hungraður (“hungry”).

Affected by hunger; having the physical need for food.

My kids go to bed hungry every night because I haven’t got much money for food.
He was so hungry he could eat two burgers.

1 more example

I woke up very hungry and made some toast.

Causing hunger.

All this gardening is hungry work.

Figuratively Eager; having an avid desire or appetite for something.

young and hungry
the students are hungry to learn

3 more examples

Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look;1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:
They rowed her in across the rolling foam, / The cruel, crawling foam, / The cruel, hungry foam, / To her grave beside the sea:1850, [Charles Kingsley], chapter V, in Alton Locke, Tailor and Poet. […], volume II, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, page 5:
It’s an astonishing roll call of future talent from when they were still young and hungry in Manhattan.2022 November 23, Hadley Freeman, “Like a cinema virgin: how Madonna went stratospheric making Desperately Seeking Susan”, in The Guardian:

Not rich or fertile; poor; barren; starved.

a hungry soil
[…] What is this? / Your knees to me? to your corrected son? / Then let the pebbles on the hungry beach / Fillip the stars […]c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]:

Synonyms: anhungry, ahungry, gaunted, hungerful, hungree, hungry
Antonyms: full, gorged, nonhungry, unhungry, sated, satiated, stuffed
Derived terms: 31 terms
ahungry, a hungry man is an angry man, anhungry, bloodhungry, cumhungry, drungry, go hungry, hangry, horngry, hungries, hungrify, hungrily, hungriness, hungrisome, hungry as a hog, hungry gap, hungry ghost, Hungry Ghost Festival, hungry like the wolf, hungry rice, I'm hungry, money-hungry, nonhungry, overhungry, power-hungry, stay hungry, superhungry, thungry, unhungrily, unhungry, warhungry
Related terms: thirsty, I am hungry, money-hungry, power-hungry, cumhungry
Hypernyms: appetited, desirous
Hyponyms: ahungered, could eat the crotch out of a low flying duck, famished, hungry as a hog, hungry like the wolf, overhungry, ravenous, starved, starving, superhungry, voracious, peckish, hangry