hunger for

hunger for (something)

To have an intense desire, yearning, or need for something. Even from a young age he hungered for knowledge, devouring any he could get his hands on. Growing up in such a small, secluded town, I constantly hungered for romance and adventure.
See also: hunger
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

hunger for someone or something

to desire someone or something; to yearn for someone or something. I hunger for you. I want you madly. He looked at the cake and you could see he was hungering for it. The prisoner was consumed with a hunger for freedom.
See also: hunger
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • hunger for (something)
  • thirst after (something)
  • thirst for
  • thirst for (something)
  • yearning desire
  • long for
  • long for (someone or something)
  • have an appetite for
  • have an appetite for (something)
  • pant for
References in classic literature
A hunger ariseth out of my beauty: I should like to injure those I illumine; I should like to rob those I have gifted:--thus do I hunger for wickedness.
Withdrawing my hand when another hand already stretcheth out to it; hesitating like the cascade, which hesitateth even in its leap:--thus do I hunger for wickedness!
That's what anyone would ask when told that another sort of manna, come down from heaven, would satisfy our hunger for good.
Of this infinite set, we can dwell on three: our hunger for consolation, understanding, and love.
We are taken aback for a moment until we realize that indeed our hunger for consolation is fed by careful words and silent presences that speak to the desolation in our soul.
Average hunger for 2016 was 13.3 percent, almost unchanged from 2015's 13.4 percent, although lowest since 2004's average of 11.8 percent.
The number of Filipino families who said they have experienced involuntary hunger for lack of anything to eat increased to 3.5 million households in the third quarter, the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey results showed.
“It is a great feeling that Estuate and its members are able to participate in the fight against hunger for a second year in a row,” says Prakash Balebail, founder and CEO of Estuate, Inc, “and we are doing our small part in making sure no one goes hungry.”
Is it a metaphysical desire (the hunger for recognition) or a biological need (the hunger for food)?
This author opens his book on hunger with some dispiriting facts: twenty-four thousand people die of hunger or hunger-related diseases every day (one every 3.6 seconds); eight hundred twenty thousand lack adequate food (one in eight worldwide); and on September 11, 2001, there were twelve dead from hunger for every victim in New York (1).
Before all else then, the fasting we do in Lent is about this love for the poor and thus the hunger for justice to be done.
But that kind of charity isn't the Lenten Christian's hunger for justice.
Thanks to Feeding Minds Fighting Hunger for this list of ideas.
When I saw you handing out the hosts, those pieces of white bread, I went to communion just out of hunger for that little bit of bread.
The other is the being I must not eat (though it is indeed my nature to hunger for his substance).