Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A strong desire or need for food.
  • noun The discomfort, weakness, or pain caused by a prolonged lack of food.
  • noun A strong desire or craving.
  • intransitive verb To have a need or desire for food.
  • intransitive verb To have a strong desire or craving.
  • intransitive verb To cause to experience hunger; make hungry.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To feel the uneasiness or longing which is occasioned by long abstinence from food; crave food.
  • Hence To have an eager desire; long.
  • To starve.
  • noun An uneasy or painful sensation occasioned by the want of food; craving appetite.
  • noun Hence Any strong or eager desire.
  • noun A famine.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To make hungry; to famish.
  • noun An uneasy sensation occasioned normally by the want of food; a craving or desire for food.
  • noun Any strong eager desire.
  • intransitive verb To feel the craving or uneasiness occasioned by want of food; to be oppressed by hunger.
  • intransitive verb To have an eager desire; to long.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To be in need of food.
  • verb figuratively To have a desire for.
  • verb archaic To make hungry; to famish.
  • noun A need or compelling desire of food.
  • noun by extension Any strong desire.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun strong desire for something (not food or drink)
  • verb have a craving, appetite, or great desire for
  • verb be hungry; go without food
  • noun a physiological need for food; the consequence of food deprivation
  • verb feel the need to eat

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English hungor.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old English hyngran.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old English hungor.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word hunger.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.