hunger

nounverbcommon in dialogue

United Kingdom//ˈhʌŋɡə//
United Kingdom/[ˈhʌŋɡə]/
Australia//ˈhɐŋɡə//
Australia/[ˈhɐ̞ŋɡə]/
//ˈhʊŋɡə//

A need or compelling desire for food.

noun

1
A need or compelling desire for food.
2
Any strong desire or need.
I have a hunger to win.
O sacred hunger of ambitious minds!
When gangsters bump my shit, can they feel my hunger?
Putin's unwillingness to declare another partial reserve call up has created a wider manpower hunger in the Russian military and border service, and Putin alone maintains the ability to remedy this issue.

Etymology

From Middle English hunger, from Old English hungor (“hunger, desire; famine”), from Proto-West Germanic *hungr, from Proto-Germanic *hungruz, *hunhruz (“hunger”), from Proto-Indo-European *kenk- (“to burn, smart, desire, hunger, thirst”). Cognate with West Frisian honger, hûnger (“hunger”), Dutch honger (“hunger”), German Low German Hunger (“hunger”), German Hunger (“hunger”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish hunger (“hunger”), Faroese and Icelandic hungur (“hunger”).

verb

1
To be in need of food.
Therefore if thine enemie hunger, feed him: if he thirst, giue him drink. For in so doing thou shalt heape coales of fire on his head.
2
figurativeTo have a desire (for); to long; to yearn.
I hungered for your love.
Blessed are they which doe hunger and thirst after righteousnesse: for they shall be filled.
In our lives we hunger for those we cannot touch.
3
archaicTo make hungry; to famish.

Etymology

From Middle English hungren, from Old English hyngran, hyngrian, ġehyngrian (“to be hungry”), from Proto-West Germanic *hungrijan, from Proto-Germanic *hungrijaną.

Forms

plural: hungers
past tense: hungered
past participle: hungered
present participle: hungering
third person singular: hungers

Hung · A surname.Hungarian · Of, from, or pertaining to present-day Hungary, the ethnic…Hungary · A country in Central Europe. Capital and largest city:…

hunger · A need or compelling desire for food.

hungry · Affected by hunger; having the physical need for food.hunk · A large or dense piece of something.hunt · To find or search for an animal in the wild with the…

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