hungry wanting to eat something:
We were really hungry after our long walk. It’s hard work cooking for a bunch of hungry kids.peckish [not before noun] British English informal a little hungry:
I’m feeling a bit peckish. What’s in the fridge?starving/ravenous /ˈræv
ənəs/ (
also starved American English)
[not before noun] spoken very hungry and wanting to eat as soon as possible:
I missed lunch and I’m absolutely starving. Sam’s always ravenous when he gets home from school.famished very hungry.
Famished is less common and sounds a little more formal than
starving or
ravenous:
Everyone was famished by the time they arrived.I could eat a horse! spoken used to say that you are very hungry:
‘Are you hungry?’ ‘Yeah, I could eat a horse.’appetite the desire for food that you have when you are hungry:
Exercise usually gives me an appetite. It’s healthy to have a good appetite.starving not having had enough food for a long time and likely to die soon without food:
Because of the drought, millions of people were starving. the starving refugees from the warmalnourished formal unhealthy and thin because you have not had the right kinds of food over a long period of time:
According to the report, one-fifth of the world’s population are malnourished. malnourished infants [TahlilGaran] English Thesaurus ▲