thirsty

Formsthirstier, thirstiest

Pluralthirsties

1. 1
   adjective

   Feeling a need to drink water or another liquid that can relieve that need.

   The hikers grew thirsty as their water bottles emptied under the afternoon sun.

   She felt thirsty after the spicy meal and reached for a glass of cold milk.

   Similarparched, dry, dehydrated

   Note

   The root sense, and an old one: Old English þurstiġ, built from thirst plus the adjective-making -y, with close cousins in Dutch dorstig and German durstig. It compares regularly, as in Bernard Scudder's translation of Egil's Saga, where eating dulse "makes you even thirstier." The other senses all stretch this bodily need outward, toward drink, longing, and desire.

2. 2
   adjectiveslangfiguratively

   Showing an obvious, often desperate craving for sex or sexual attention.

   The messages he sent were so thirsty that she stopped replying.

   Fans flooded the post with thirsty comments the moment the photo went up.

   Similarhorny

   Note

   Slang that grew out of the figurative craving and narrowed it to sexual desire. It attaches readily to what people send and post as well as to people themselves. Spencer Kornhaber, writing on Britney Spears's Glory in 2016, describes a "thirsty text message." The tone leans toward mockery of desire shown without restraint, which is why being called thirsty on social media stings. Think twice before pinning it on a real person.

3. 3
   adjectivefiguratively

   Feeling a strong craving or longing for something intangible, such as power, fame, or knowledge.

   The new manager was thirsty for recognition and took on every project she could.

   Voters seemed thirsty for change after a decade of the same policies.

   Similarhungry, eager, avid, greedy, desperate

   Oppositeindifferent

4. 4
   adjectiveeuphemistic

   Craving alcohol, especially while experiencing the effects of withdrawal from not drinking.

   By noon he was thirsty for a drink and could think of nothing but the nearest bar.

   The morning after, hands trembling, she felt desperately thirsty and reached for the gin.

   Note

   A polite cover for wanting a drink of the alcoholic kind. The euphemism works because the speaker never names the bottle, so context does all the work: "he's pretty thirsty, I think," said of a colleague who seems off his game, hints at more than water. That vagueness is also the risk. In a neutral setting the listener may simply hear the plain bodily need, so save it for company that will catch the wink.

5. 5
   adjectivecolloquial

   Causing thirst, as hot, heavy, or dusty work does.

   Hauling bricks in the August heat is thirsty work, so bring plenty of water.

   The dusty road made for a thirsty journey across the plains.

   Note

   Here the thirst belongs to the cause, not the person: the word moves from the drinker to whatever dries the mouth. Its home is the fixed phrase thirsty work, used of marching, cycling, or hauling, and outside that phrase it sounds unusual. Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897) applies it to a dish, a chicken done up with red pepper that was "very good but thirsty," so a meal can qualify as well as a job.

6. 6
   nounplural

   A person who is thirsty, whether for a drink, alcohol, sex, or the like.

   The charity opened its doors to feed the hungry and water the thirsty.

   At the festival, the stalls did brisk business among the thirsty.

   Note

   The adjective turned into a noun for whoever needs a drink, most often used in the plural or with the. The Mines Magazine of 1919 describes "the thirsties of the crowd" left short of beer. A singular "a thirsty" does occur but stays unusual. Gardeners extend the word beyond people: George Waters, in The Pacific Horticulture Book of Western Gardening (1990), calls water-hungry azaleas and flowers "thirsties."

7. 7
   noununcountable

   The condition or feeling of thirst; the need to drink.

   There is a thirsty that is not for the belly. There is a thirsty for land that belong to we."

   1948, Esther Warner, New Song in a Strange Land

   The captain would have to spend all his fortune trying to quench the Dark tenant's thirsty. A thirsty that has spanned thousands of years and never been quenched. Provide for his lusts!

   2012, Joyce Bethwane, You Are Not Your Own

   Note

   A rare stand-in for the noun thirst, used when a writer wants the word to sound off-kilter. In Esther Warner's New Song in a Strange Land (1948) it belongs to a speaker of nonstandard English ("a thirsty for land"). Adam Roberts's The Real-Town Murders (2017) plays with it instead: "a thirsty that has worked out." In ordinary prose keep to thirst. You quench a thirst, and "a thirsty" reads as a slip.

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