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.
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
Activist Sonam Wangchuk ended a 26-day hunger strike on Friday after talks with government officials.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 25, 2026
CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke welcomed Wangchuk's decision to end his hunger strike but said the movement would press ahead with its campaign until the education minister resigns.
From Barron's ● Jul. 24, 2026
The protesters, who call themselves cockroaches, have been demonstrating for a month now, with some members also going on hunger strike.
From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2026
Through a plastic-wrapped note hidden in our food drums, we learned in July of 1966 that the men in the general section had embarked on a hunger strike to protest poor conditions.
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 appeared that she had conducted a hunger-strike of her own for the last twenty-four hours; and I think she looked it.
From The Sixth Sense A Novel by McKenna, Stephen
That changed on 18 July when Delhi police forcibly removed and hospitalised hunger-striking educator Sonam Wangchuk.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
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
But around Sept. 19, guards stopped taking hunger-striking detainees to feeding stations, said Clive Stafford Smith, a lawyer for the international human rights organization Reprieve.
From New York Times ● Oct. 11, 2017
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 Ward, Humphry, Mrs.
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.
