hunger
noun
- sensation experienced when one feels the physiological need to eat food
- state in which a person, for a sustained period, is unable to eat sufficient food to meet basic nutritional needs
verb
- be unable to eat sufficient food to meet basic nutritional needs
- feel a strong urge to eat.
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈhʌŋɡə/ / [ˈhʌŋɡə] / /ˈhʊŋɡə/
noun
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”).
- A need or compelling desire for food.
- Any strong desire or need.
“I have a hunger to win.”
“O sacred hunger of ambitious minds!”
verb
Etymology: From Middle English hungren, from Old English hyngran, hyngrian, ġehyngrian (“to be hungry”), from Proto-West Germanic *hungrijan, from Proto-Germanic *hungrijaną.
- 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.”
- To 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.”
- To make hungry; to famish.