HUNGRY (hungrier, hungriest)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: hungrier    , hungriest   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does hungry mean? 

• HUNGRY (adjective)
  The adjective HUNGRY has 2 senses:

1. feeling hunger; feeling a need or desire to eat food

2. (usually followed by 'for') extremely desirous

  Familiarity information: HUNGRY used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HUNGRY (adjective)

Comparative: hungrier   
Superlative: hungriest   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Feeling hunger; feeling a need or desire to eat food

Context example:

a world full of hungry people

Similar:

empty; empty-bellied (needing nourishment)

esurient; famished; ravenous; sharp-set; starved (extremely hungry)

peckish (somewhat hungry)

supperless (without supper)

Antonym:

thirsty (feeling a need or desire to drink)

Derivation:

hunger; hungriness (a physiological need for food; the consequence of food deprivation)

Sense 2

Meaning:

(usually followed by 'for') extremely desirous

Synonyms:

athirst; hungry; thirsty

Context example:

thirsty for information

Similar:

desirous; wishful (having or expressing desire for something)

Derivation:

hunger (strong desire for something (not food or drink))

hungriness (prolonged unfulfilled desire or need)

 Context examples 

He was hungry, and he remembered pieces of meat and fish that had been thrown him.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

He forgot himself and stared at her with hungry eyes.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

“It is quite certain that he knows nothing whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?”

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

For no man knew of Kamo-tah, sick and groaning and hungry; and did I fight with Ivan, and die, then would my brother die, too.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

I was aware of a hungry out-reaching for her, as of a starving man for bread.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

I go to help her; but she smile, and tell me that she have eat already—that she was so hungry that she would not wait.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

“Dismal enough in the dark,” he said: “and the sea roars as if it were hungry for us. Is that the boat, where I see a light yonder?” “That's the boat,” said I.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

"You are very hungry," he said.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The findings inspired comparisons by the research team and the press to zombies from The Walking Dead, especially since the behavior was more pronounced when the animals were hungry.

(Geneticists produce laser-activated killer mice, Wikinews)

Hungry zooplankton hundreds of meters below the surface often consume carbon-rich particles sinking toward the ocean floor, interrupting the transport process.

(Research provides new view of the critical role of plankton in marine carbon storage, National Science Foundation)