hungernoun
uk/ˈhʌŋ.ɡər/us/ˈhʌŋ.ɡɚ/hunger noun (NEED FOR FOOD)
B1 [ U ] the feeling you have when you need to eat:
I can't believe that that enormous meal wasn't enough to satisfy your hunger.
By about nine o'clock she started to feel faint from/with hunger.
I often suffer from hunger pangs (= strong feelings of needing something to eat) in the middle of the afternoon.
B2 [ U ] a situation in which the body does not have enough food:
All over the world, people die of hunger every day.
More examples
- After three days, we felt an agonizing, gnawing hunger.
- I don't know why I'm eating more - it's not hunger, it's just greed!
- We hadn't eaten since yesterday and the hunger pangs were getting harder to ignore.
- It revolts me to know that the world spends so much money on arms when millions are dying of hunger.
- Hundreds of refugees collapsed from hunger and thirst.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Hungry & thirsty
- (I'm so hungry), I could eat a horse idiom
- appetite
- be gasping idiom
- eat
- eat like a horse idiom
- empty
- gasp
- hungry
- make sb's mouth water idiom
- munchies
- on an empty stomach idiom
- smack
- smack your lips idiom
- starvation
- starved
- starving
- thirst
- thirsty
- unquenchable
- voracious
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hunger noun (DESIRE)
C1 [ S or U ] a strong wish or desire:
a hunger for adventure/knowledge/success
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Feelings of desire
- appetite
- caprice
- compulsion
- covetous
- craving
- dream
- drive
- get itchy feet idiom
- hankering
- impulse buy
- inclination
- longing
- lust
- need
- urge
- vaulting
- whim
- wish
- yearning
- yen
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