# hungry
## English
### Etymology

From Middle English hungry, from Old English hungriġ, from Proto-West Germanic *hungrug, from Proto-Germanic *hungrugaz (“hungry”); equivalent to hunger +‎ -y. Cognate with West Frisian hongerich (“hungry”), Dutch hongerig (“hungry”), German hungrig (“hungry”), Swedish hungrig (“hungry”), Icelandic hungraður (“hungry”).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈhʌŋ.ɡɹi/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -ʌŋɡɹi
* Homophone: Hungary (in some accents)
* Hyphenation: hun‧gry

### Adjective

hungry (comparative hungrier, superlative hungriest)
* Affected by hunger; having the physical need for food.
    Synonyms: famished, peckish, starving
    My kids go to bed hungry every night because I haven’t got much money for food.
    I woke up very hungry and made some toast.
* Causing hunger.
    All this gardening is hungry work.
* (figuratively) Eager; having an avid desire or appetite for something.
    young and hungry
    the students are hungry to learn
** 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look;
** 1850, [Charles Kingsley], chapter V, in Alton Locke, Tailor and Poet. […], volume II, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, page 5:They rowed her in across the rolling foam, / The cruel, crawling foam, / The cruel, hungry foam, / To her grave beside the sea:
** 2022 November 23, Hadley Freeman, “Like a cinema virgin: how Madonna went stratospheric making Desperately Seeking Susan”, in The Guardian‎:It’s an astonishing roll call of future talent from when they were still young and hungry in Manhattan.
* Not rich or fertile; poor; barren; starved.
    a hungry soil
** c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]:[…] What is this? / Your knees to me? to your corrected son? / Then let the pebbles on the hungry beach / Fillip the stars […]

#### Derived terms

* ahungry, anhungry
* a hungry man is an angry man
* bloodhungry
* drungry
* go hungry
* hangry
* horngry
* hungries
* hungrily
* hungriness
* hungry as a hog
* hungry ghost
* hungry like the wolf
* hungry rice
* I'm hungry
* money-hungry
* power-hungry
* stay hungry
* thungry
* unhungry

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### See also

* thirsty
* I am hungry

## Middle English
### Alternative forms

* hungrie, hungri, hungre, hungery, hongry, hungury, hungorie, hungrye
* houngrie, hungrig (Early Middle English)
* hunnꟑriȝ (Ormulum)

### Etymology

From Old English hungriġ, from Proto-Germanic *hungragaz; equivalent to hunger +‎ -y.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈhunɡriː/, [ˈhuŋɡriː]

### Adjective

hungry
* Hungry or starving; afflicted by hunger or starvation.
* Voracious; having a great desire or compulsion to eat.
* Haggard, scrawny; shriveled due to hunger or starvation.
* (rare) Due to hunger; because of one's appetite.
* (rare) Desirous; wanting something to a great degree.
* (rare) Causing or producing hunger.
* (rare) Of earth; not productive.

#### Descendants

* English: hungry
* Scots: hungry
* Yola: hungree

#### References

* “hungrī(e, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-09-19.

### Noun

hungry
* Those who are hungry, starving, or of little means.

#### References

* “hungrī(e, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-09-19.