hungry

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”).

adj

1. Affected by hunger; having the physical need for food.
   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.
2. Causing hunger.
   All this gardening is hungry work.
3. (figurative) Eager, having an avid desire (‘appetite’) for something.
   young and hungry
   the students are hungry to learn
   It’s an astonishing roll call of future talent from when they were still young and hungry in Manhattan. 2022-11-23, Hadley Freeman, “Like a cinema virgin: how Madonna went stratospheric making Desperately Seeking Susan”, in The Guardian
4. Not rich or fertile; poor; barren; starved.
   a hungry soil