hunger

[huhng-ger] /ˈhʌŋ gər/
noun
1.
a compelling need or desire for food.
2.
the painful sensation or state of weakness caused by the need of food:
to collapse from hunger.
3.
a shortage of food; famine.
4.
a strong or compelling desire or craving:
hunger for power.
verb (used without object)
5.
to feel hunger; be hungry.
6.
to have a strong desire.
verb (used with object)
7.
Rare. to subject to hunger; starve.
Idioms
8.
from hunger, Slang. deplorably bad; dreadful:
The styles in coats this winter are from hunger.
Also, strictly from hunger.
Origin
before 900; Middle English; Old English hungor; cognate with German Hunger
Related forms
hungeringly, adverb
half-hungered, adjective
prehunger, noun
Synonyms
4. appetite, greed, lust, itch.
Examples from the web for hunger
  • There are plenty of reasons to worry about food: uncertain politics, volatile prices, hunger amid plenty.
  • hunger is not a function of simple supply and demand, but population size matched to productive potential of food and water.
  • And growing economic pressure globally to produce biofuels rather than food may mean that hunger will not be erased anytime soon.
  • Which works synergistically with the tendency of processed food to evoke less of of a hunger satiation response.
  • Activity has previously been shown to reduce food intake, likely because it affects levels of the hunger hormones.
  • Now the danger is far more real-thousands of villagers have no food or water, and reports of hunger are widespread.
  • First, restricting food makes kids think not in terms of their own hunger but in terms of the presence and absence of food.
  • Relationship of hunger and food insecurity to food availability and consumption.
  • General information and resources on hunger and food security scroll down this page.
  • Widespread hunger remains intractable throughout the world and is exacting a high human toll.
British Dictionary definitions for hunger

hunger

/ˈhʌŋɡə/
noun
1.
a feeling of pain, emptiness, or weakness induced by lack of food
2.
an appetite, desire, need, or craving: hunger for a woman
verb
3.
to have or cause to have a need or craving for food
4.
(intransitive; usually foll by for or after) to have a great appetite or desire (for)
Word Origin
Old English hungor; related to Old High German hungar, Old Norse hungr, Gothic hūhrus
Word Origin and History for hunger
n.

Old English hungor "unease or pain caused by lack of food, craving appetite, debility from lack of food," from Proto-Germanic *hungruz (cf. Old Frisian hunger, Old Saxon hungar, Old High German hungar, Old Norse hungr, German hunger, Dutch honger, Gothic huhrus), probably from PIE root *kenk- (2) "to suffer hunger or thirst." Hunger strike attested from 1885; earliest references are to prisoners in Russia.

v.

Old English hyngran (cf. Old Saxon gihungrjan, Old High German hungaran, German hungern, Gothic huggrjan), from the source of hunger (n.). Related: Hungered; hungering.

hunger in Medicine

hunger hun·ger (hŭng'gər)
n.

  1. A strong desire or need for food.

  2. The discomfort, weakness, or pain caused by a prolonged lack of food.

  3. A strong desire or craving, as for affection.

Slang definitions & phrases for hunger

hunger

Related Terms

from hunger