Hungred

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Archaic past tense of a verb meaning to go without food and feel its pains ; to have a strong, painful longing for something one lacks
2. Used in older English for having gone without food and felt its discomfort ; for having yearned intensely after something one wanted badly
3. Once used to describe suffering from a lack of food ; also describing a fervent, aching craving for something out of reach

Etymology: "Hungred" is an archaic past tense and past participle of "hunger," the verb meaning to feel the need for food or to crave something intensely. The verb itself comes from Old English "hyngrian," a descendant of the Germanic root that also gave German "hungern," and it has long been used both for literal hunger and for longing of any kind. The form "hungred" follows the regular weak-verb pattern, adding "-ed" to the stem, which is why it looked natural to English speakers for centuries. Over time, however, "hungered" largely displaced it in ordinary speech, and "hungred" survives mainly in older writing and in phrases borrowed from the King James Bible, such as the Beatitude "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness."

Synonyms: hungered, starved

Antonyms: sated, satisfied