hungry

hungry

hun‧gry S2 /ˈhʌŋɡri/ adjective (comparative hungrier, superlative hungriest)
  [Word Family: noun: hunger; adverb: hungrily; adjective: hungry]
 1. wanting to eat something ⇨ thirsty:
   • I was cold, tired, and hungry.
   • If you get hungry, there’s some cold chicken in the fridge.
   • Do you still feel hungry?
 2. ill or weak as a result of not having enough to eat for a long time:
   • We can’t justify wasting food when half the world is hungry.
 3. go hungry to not have enough to eat:
   • Thousands of families go hungry every day.
 4. wanting or needing something very much SYN eager
  hungry for
   • She is hungry for success.
  hungry to do something
   • Stan was hungry to learn.
 5. the hungry [plural] people who do not have enough food to eat
 6. power-hungry/news-hungry etc wanting power, news etc very much:
   • a power-hungry politician
     • • •

THESAURUS

■ wanting to eat

   ▪ hungry wanting to eat something: • We were really hungry after our long walk. | • It’s hard work cooking for a bunch of hungry kids.
   ▪ peckish [not before noun] British English informal a little hungry: • I’m feeling a bit peckish. What’s in the fridge?
   ▪ starving/ravenous /ˈrævənəs/ (also starved American English) [not before noun] spoken very hungry and wanting to eat as soon as possible: • I missed lunch and I’m absolutely starving. | • Sam’s always ravenous when he gets home from school.
   ▪ famished very hungry. Famished is less common and sounds a little more formal than starving or ravenous: • Everyone was famished by the time they arrived.
   ▪ I could eat a horse! spoken used to say that you are very hungry: • ‘Are you hungry?’ ‘Yeah, I could eat a horse.’
   ▪ appetite the desire for food that you have when you are hungry: • Exercise usually gives me an appetite. | • It’s healthy to have a good appetite.

■ ill because of lack of food

   ▪ hungry ill or weak because of not having enough to eat: • terrible pictures of hungry children in Africa
   ▪ starving not having had enough food for a long time and likely to die soon without food: • Because of the drought, millions of people were starving. | • the starving refugees from the war
   ▪ malnourished formal unhealthy and thin because you have not had the right kinds of food over a long period of time: • According to the report, one-fifth of the world’s population are malnourished. | • malnourished infants