peckish
Americanadjective
-
somewhat hungry.
By noon we were feeling a bit peckish.
-
rather irritable.
He's always a bit peckish after his nap.
adjective
Etymology
Origin of peckish
Explanation
Find yourself craving Doritos or a chunk of cheese, then you can say you're peckish. If you're peckish, you're a tad hungry (not starving, but hungry enough to poke around the kitchen cabinets). While the informal word peckish is more common in the UK, most people in North America will know what you mean if you say, "I'm feeling a little peckish — should we make some popcorn?" Some people wake up in the morning feeling peckish, while others don't feel like eating for a few hours. Peckish comes from the verb peck, which a bird does when it bites with its beak — it basically means "hungry enough to peck at some food."
Vocabulary lists containing peckish
The Suffix -ish, Part 4
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"Serving in Florida" by Barbara Ehrenreich
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The Mysterious Howling
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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.
Mahaffy, who starred in the exuberant revival of “A Man of No Importance” at A Noise Within last season, is more insistently peckish — hungry rather than hangry.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 9, 2025
Using infrared sensors, the team watched which landing platforms the peckish mosquitoes chose.
From Science Magazine • May 18, 2023
Hungry for attention, he strode around his pen, eager to show off his tail feathers, while Chip hovered nearby, peckish for the occasional close up.
From Seattle Times • Nov. 24, 2022
"It might be a muffin or some biscuits that you could eat in a break just because you felt a bit peckish or to lift your energy a bit," she says.
From BBC • Feb. 25, 2022
“Of course I did,” I snapped, not meaning to adopt my aunt’s peckish ways.
From "The Detective's Assistant" by Kate Hannigan
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.
