First recorded in 1885–90
First recorded in 1910–15
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Last month, he joined the Cockroach sit-in and went on a hunger strike, a protest tactic in India associated with Mahatma Gandhi.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026
Many were galvanized by the police’s decision over the weekend to forcibly hospitalize a prominent activist who has been on a hunger strike in support of the movement.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026
Gabriela Soto, the wife of Martin Soto, a leader of the hunger strike, recalled her experiences with ICE attempting to move her husband from Delaney Hall, which was ultimately successful.
From Salon ● Jul. 17, 2026
That may also explain why, more than seven decades later, Indians continue to reach instinctively for the hunger strike.
From BBC ● Jul. 16, 2026
They walked past the Class III Airport Workers’ Union token one-day hunger strike.
From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy
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
One of the Sinn Fein leaders who had been rearrested on suspicion after the amnesty took part in a hunger-strike as a protest against being subjected to the conditions imposed on a convicted felon.
From John Redmond's Last Years by Gwynn, Stephen Lucius
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
Navy Capt. John Robinson, a spokesman for the prison, said in a statement that an 11-year-old military policy permitting the involuntary feeding of hunger-striking detainees remained in effect.
From New York Times ● Oct. 11, 2017
Mr. Burke allowed all the noble reproach of a hunger-striking suffragist to appear in those blue eyes of his as he looked down at me.
From Miss Million's Maid A Romance of Love and Fortune by Onions, Mrs. Oliver
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.
