# hunger

Pronunciation: US say "HUNG-gur" /ˈhʌŋɡɚ/; UK say "HUNG-guh" /ˈhʌŋɡə/

## Noun

1. The need or strong desire for food.
   - Simple: The feeling you get when your body needs food.
   - _After the long hike, their hunger drove them straight to the nearest diner._
   - _Aid workers struggle to relieve hunger in regions hit by drought._
2. A strong desire or need for something other than food.
   - Simple: A strong wish for something you really want.
   - _A deep hunger for knowledge kept her in the library long after closing._
   - _The team played with a hunger that their rivals simply lacked._

## Verb

3. To feel a strong desire or longing for something.
   - Simple: To want something very much.
   - _Voters hunger for real change after years of broken promises._
   - _He hungered for adventure but never left his hometown._
4. To be in need of food; to go without enough to eat.
   - Simple: To need food because you have not eaten.
   - _Refugees who hunger through the winter depend on emergency aid._
   - _The prisoners hungered for weeks under the harsh regime._

## Verb

5. To make someone hungry; to deprive of food to the point of starvation. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: To make someone feel very hungry, often by keeping food away.
   - _The tyrant deliberately hungered his prisoners to break their will._
   - _Such harsh winters would hunger whole villages._

## Origin

**Meanings 1–2** — From Middle English hunger, from Old English hungor ("hunger, desire; famine"), going back through Proto-Germanic *hungruz to the Proto-Indo-European root *kenk- ("to burn, smart, desire, hunger, thirst"). It is related to Dutch honger, German Hunger, and Swedish hunger.
**Meanings 3–5** — From Middle English hungren, from Old English hyngran ("to be hungry"), from Proto-West Germanic *hungrijan and Proto-Germanic *hungrijaną.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/hunger (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).