hunger strike
noun
a deliberate refusal to eat, undertaken in protest against imprisonment, improper treatment, objectionable conditions, etc.
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hunger strike
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hunger-strike
hunger-strikeverb (used without object)to go on a hunger strike.
hunger strike
1 Americannoun
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hunger strikes
plural
hunger-strike
2
American
[huhng-ger-strahyk]
/ ˈhʌŋ gərˌstraɪk /
verb (used without object)
hunger-struck,
hunger-striking
hunger strike
British
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of hunger strike1
First recorded in 1885–90
Origin of hunger-strike2
First recorded in 1910–15
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Five people outside the prison joined the pair on their hunger strike for the final five days as an act of solidarity, the family added.
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
More than a 100 detainees were on a hunger strike over conditions at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in San Bernardino County.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 1, 2026
He was admitted briefly in February 2025 after a hunger strike and again earlier this year.
From Barron's ● Jul. 30, 2026
On July 18, police in Delhi forcibly hospitalized a prominent environmental and educational activist who had undertaken a nearly three-week hunger strike in solidarity with protesters.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
In order for a hunger strike to succeed, the outside world must learn of it.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
She began recounting her story in media interviews and on Palm Sunday 1996 began a weeks-long hunger-strike and vigil in Lafayette Square outside the White House.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 19, 2021
They conducted a week-long "hunger-strike" in protest, claiming that the British government had not done enough to help their son.
From BBC ● Oct. 27, 2017
Elshamy's younger brother Mosa'ab, an award-winning independent photojournalist, said on Monday night that the move marked a "huge victory" for the reporter, whom the authorities had denied was undergoing a hunger-strike.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 16, 2014
“This was a very short hunger-strike and was not widely discussed or reported like most things in Bagram,” he said.
From Newsweek ● Sep. 2, 2013
It was, naturally, useless unless the person seeking redress was prepared to go to extremes, and has some analogy to the modern hunger-strike with the object of getting out of jail.
From The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India Volume II by R. V. (Robert Vane) Russell
That changed on 18 July when Delhi police forcibly removed and hospitalised hunger-striking educator Sonam Wangchuk.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
Last week, she gave an exclusive interview to CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, calling for the release of her friend, the hunger-striking activist Farhad Meysami.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 15, 2023
Italian embassies all over the world are at risk of anarchist attacks linked to the case of the hunger-striking Alfredo Cospito, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on Tuesday.
From Reuters ● Jan. 31, 2023
JERICHO, West Bank – A Palestinian court on Thursday extended the detention of a hunger-striking Palestinian-American activist who claims she was tortured in captivity.
From Fox News ● Dec. 6, 2018
For the matters in which she was engaged were no child's play, and the excitements of prison and hunger-striking might tell even on the strongest physique.
From Delia Blanchflower by Mrs. Humphry Ward
One day last fortnight, after 650 of the prison's 1,414 prisoners had yammered, clamored and "hunger-struck" against the prison food and discipline, six ringleaders were thrust into "The Klondike."
From Time Magazine Archive
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
