See Also: hungry(dictionary)
hungry(dictionary)

hungry (iou)



hungry adjective.

Feeling pain or discomfort from the lack of food; having a keen appetite. OE.
I. Murdoch She felt very hungry, having had no lunch. W. Bronk Yes, I'm hungry, I'll eat anything.
b. Indicating or marked by hunger; belonging to a hungry person. LME.
Shakespeare Julius Caesar Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look.
Having a strong desire or craving (for, after); spec. eager for money, profits, etc.; Scot. & Austral. mean, stingy. ME.
H. D. Traill The conveyance of prize-money..into Charles's always hungry pocket. E. Bowen She heard a great hum from the waiting plane hungry for flight. M. Binchy He was hungry for every detail of her.
Of a period, place, etc.: marked by famine or scarcity of food. Now rare exc. in hungry forties below. ME.
S. Rowlands When thou art hording vp thy foode, Against these hungry dayes.
a. Of air etc.: that produces a keen appetite. rare. LME.
b. Of a meal: eaten with a hearty appetite. Now rare or obsolete. M16.
Of food etc.: that does not satisfy the hunger. Now rare. M16.
Esp. of land, soil, etc.: deficient in nutrients, poor, infertile. Also, of a river: not supplying food for fish. L16.
M. B. Keatinge Flat tracts of hungry pasture ground.
Special collocations: hungry forties the decade 1840-9 in Britain, a period of great distress and scarcity of food among the poor. hungry rice (the seed of) a kind of millet, Digitaria exilis, grown in arid areas of W. Africa; also called fundi.
hungrily adverb LME.
hungriness noun M16.