Word forms: comparative hungrier, superlative hungriest
1. adjective
When you are hungry, you want some food because you have not eaten for some time and have an uncomfortable or painful feeling in your stomach.
My friend was hungry, so we drove to a shopping mall to get some food.
Synonyms: starving, ravenous, famished, starved More Synonyms of hungry
hungrily (hʌŋgrɪli)adverb [ADVERB with verb]
James ate hungrily.
2.
See go hungry
3. adjective
If you say that someone is hungry for something, you are emphasizing that they want it very much.
[literary, emphasis]
Susan was certainly hungry for a life different from the one she had made for herself.
I left Oxford in 1961 hungry to be a critic.
Synonyms: eager, keen, craving, yearning More Synonyms of hungry
Hungry is also a combining form.
...power-hungry politicians.
hungrilyadverb [ADVERB with verb]
Other companies were also eyeing the market hungrily.
hungry in British English
(ˈhʌŋɡrɪ)
adjectiveWord forms: -grier or -griest
1.
desiring food
2.
experiencing pain, weakness, or nausea through lack of food
3. (postpositive; foll byfor)
having a craving, desire, or need (for)
4.
expressing or appearing to express greed, craving, or desire
5.
lacking fertility; poor
6. Australian and New Zealand informal
a.
greedy; grasping
b.
stingy; mean
7. New Zealand
(of timber) dry and bare
Derived forms
hungrily (ˈhungrily) or hungeringly (ˈhungeringly)
adverb
hungriness (ˈhungriness)
noun
hungry in American English
(ˈhʌŋgri)
adjectiveWord forms: ˈhungrier or ˈhungriest
1.
feeling, having, or showing hunger
; specif.,
a.
wanting or needing food
b.
craving; eager
hungry for praise
2. Rare
producing hunger
3.
not fertile; barren
said of soil
Derived forms
hungrily (ˈhungrily) (ˈhʌŋgrəli)
adverb
hungriness (ˈhungriness)
noun
Word origin
ME < OE hungrig
Examples of 'hungry' in a sentence
hungry
The app connects people who have surplus food with their hungry neighbours.
The Sun (2017)
No one goes hungry in our house.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
This means females go hungry and lose their calves in spring or give birth to lighter young.
The Sun (2016)
She would eat only when hungry and stop as soon as she was full.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
People can wake at night if they go to bed hungry so it could disrupt sleep.
The Sun (2017)
But that is not enough, people are hungry to use more senses.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
I guarantee you won't go hungry.
The Sun (2016)
Don’t worry about getting hungry when you’re in Grand Marais.
Smithsonian Mag (2017)
More than 14 million people are going hungry, half of them starving.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
How could it be considered before the need to feed a hungry population?
Times, Sunday Times (2009)
We should know what it feels like to be poor and hungry.
John Cornwell Seminary Boy (2006)
He would have spent most of his life hungry.
Times, Sunday Times (2006)
We think he will come down when he gets really hungry.
The Sun (2009)
Women who had no one to bring them food went hungry.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
They are certainly hungry for one another.
The Times Literary Supplement (2008)
There are more overweight people than hungry ones.
The Sun (2010)
He is nowadays also hungrier and more resolute than he used to be.
Times, Sunday Times (2013)
And he would see about a billion people going hungry.
Times, Sunday Times (2012)
Let all who are hungry come and eat.
Times, Sunday Times (2013)
Factory farming is necessary to feed a hungry world.
Times, Sunday Times (2009)
The poor and the hungry need to be the focus of our economic and social responsibility.
Times, Sunday Times (2008)
Looking out at the training ground makes the players hungry to get out there.
The Sun (2016)
There is also the humble consolation of putting food in a hungry belly.
The Times Literary Supplement (2011)
The manager has assembled a squad now packed with a lot of young and hungry people.
The Sun (2008)
That certainly makes us hungry to get a taste of that success.
Times, Sunday Times (2009)
But we were hungry because no one had the freedom to go out and buy food.
Times, Sunday Times (2014)
It means that all food goes on the list of what is permissible to eat when hungry.
Bloom, Carol & Gitter, Andrea (contributor) & Gutwill, Susan (contributor) & Kogel,Laura (contributor) & Zaphiropoulos, Lela (contributor) Eating Problems: A Feminist Psychoanalytic Treatment Model (1994)
So where are the poor and the hungry?
Times, Sunday Times (2012)
Mum would be the first to admit that she was happy to cut corners to feed hungry mouths.
Times, Sunday Times (2015)
They gave her sugar bursts that just left her feeling more hungry and in need of her next hit.
The Sun (2008)
Your mum will inevitably also feel hungry in the first four to five days if she embarks on one.
Times, Sunday Times (2009)
The price of heating and food means many elderly live a cold, lonely and hungry life.
The Sun (2013)
Quotations
A hungry stomach has no earsJean de la FontaineThe Kite and the Nightingale
In other languages
hungry
British English: hungry /ˈhʌŋɡrɪ/ ADJECTIVE
When you are hungry, you want food.
My friend was hungry, so we drove to a shopping mall to get some food.
American English: hungry
Arabic: جَوْعَانٌ
Brazilian Portuguese: faminto
Chinese: 饥饿的
Croatian: gladan
Czech: hladový
Danish: sulten
Dutch: hongerig
European Spanish: hambriento
Finnish: nälkäinen
French: affamé
German: hungrig
Greek: πεινασμένος
Italian: affamato
Japanese: 腹の減った
Korean: 배고픈
Norwegian: sulten
Polish: głodny
European Portuguese: faminto
Romanian: înfometat
Russian: голодный
Latin American Spanish: hambriento
Swedish: hungrig
Thai: หิว
Turkish: aç karın
Ukrainian: голодний
Vietnamese: đói
Chinese translation of 'hungry'
hungry
(ˈhʌŋɡrɪ)
adj
饥(飢)饿(餓)的 (jī'è de)
to be hungry饿(餓)了 (èle)
to be hungry for success渴望成功 (kěwàng chénggōng)
to go hungry挨饿(餓) (ái'è)
All related terms of 'hungry'
to be hungry
饿(餓)了 èle
to go hungry
挨饿(餓) ái'è
to feel hungry
觉(覺)得饿(餓) juéde è
she's hungry/thirsty
她饿(餓)了/渴了 tā è le/kě le
to be hungry for success
渴望成功 kěwàng chénggōng
1 (adjective)
Definition
desiring food
My friend was hungry, so we went to get some food.
Synonyms
starving
Apart from anything else, I was starving.
ravenous
a pack of ravenous animals
famished
Is dinner ready? I'm famished.
starved
empty (informal)
Never drink on an empty stomach.
hollow
voracious
For their size, stoats are voracious predators.
peckish (informal, mainly British)
sharp-set
famishing
esurient
2 (adjective)
Definition
expressing greed, craving, or desire
I was hungry to be an actor.
Synonyms
eager
Robert was eager to talk about life in the Army.
keen
a keen amateur photographer
craving
yearning
greedy
a greedy little boy who ate too many sweets
avid
He was avid for wealth.
desirous
covetous
His sports car was attracting covetous stares.
athirst
phrase
See go hungry
Quotation
A hungry stomach has no ears [Jean de la Fontaine – The Kite and the Nightingale]