starving
Needing food badly
Starving is the present participle of starve—to suffer or die from lack of food.
In casual use, starving is hyperbole for very hungry: I'm starving, let's eat.
The word can describe extreme deprivation of anything essential: starving for attention, starving for affection.
As an adjective, it describes those severely lacking food: starving children, a starving artist.
Intensely, painfully hungry
- ravenousExtremely hungry, insatiable
- hungryWanting to eat
- peckishMildly hungry
- voraciousExtremely eager to consume
empty · growling · gnawing · hollow · faint · lightheaded · weak · craving
Abnormally wasted from hunger
- gauntLean from deprivation
- skeletalOf or like bones
- wastedUsed without good result
- underfedLacking adequate food
malnourished · scrawny · thin · bony · undernourished · cadaverous · haggard · withered
Severe food shortage
- malnutritionDisease from dietary inadequacy
- droughtProlonged water scarcity
- reliefEasing of distress
- aidSupport given freely
rations · scarcity · shortage · humanitarian · refugee · food desert · bread line · soup kitchen
Extremely eager for
- longing forIntense persistent desire toward
- aching forIntensely desiring something
- yearningIntense prolonged craving
- cravingPowerful urge to have
thirsting · pining · hungry for · itching for · eager · impatient · obsessed · fixated
famished
Intensely, painfully hungry
voracious · empty · growling · gnawing · hollow · faint · lightheaded · weak · craving · hankering
emaciated
Abnormally wasted from hunger
underfed · malnourished · scrawny · thin · bony · undernourished · cadaverous · haggard · withered · frail
famine
Severe food shortage
- malnutritionDisease from dietary inadequacy
- droughtProlonged water scarcity
- reliefEasing of distress
aid · rations · scarcity · shortage · humanitarian · refugee · food desert · bread line · soup kitchen
dying for
Extremely eager for
- longing forIntense persistent desire toward
- aching forIntensely desiring something
- yearningIntense prolonged craving
craving · thirsting · pining · hungry for · itching for · eager · impatient · obsessed · fixated · needing
deprived
Lacking necessities
desperate · without · bereft · deficient · impoverished · denied · devoid · stripped · bare · empty-handed
- appetitehungry, hunger, famished, ravenous, cravings
- hungerhunger, hungry, famished, ravenous, hunger pangs
- Hunger & Appetitehunger, fullness, satiety, craving, appetite loss
- hunger & thirstappetite, thirst, dehydration, cravings, hunger pangs
- Hyperbolea zillion, bazillion, gazillion, bajillion, zillion
- survival statesalive, dead, dying, injured, safe
- starving artistPoor creative professional
- starving the beastDefunding to force downsizing