thirsty
Americanadjective
-
thirstier,
comparative
-
thirstiest
superlative
-
feeling or having thirst; craving liquid.
-
needing moisture, as land; parched; dry or arid.
the thirsty soil.
-
eagerly desirous; eager.
thirsty for news.
-
causing thirst.
Digging is thirsty work.
-
Slang.
-
eager for attention or approval.
thirsty celebrities.
-
desperate for affection, sex, or sexual attention.
-
adjective
-
feeling a desire to drink
-
dry; arid
the thirsty soil
-
(foll by for) feeling an eager desire
thirsty for information
-
causing thirst
thirsty work
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of thirsty
First recorded before 950; Middle English thirsti, Old English thyrstig; akin to Dutch dorstig, German durstig, Sanskrit tṛṣita “thirsty,” from the Proto-Indo-European root ters-, tṛs- “dry,” from which Latin terra (from unattested tersa ) “(dry) land” derives
Explanation
When you're thirty, you crave liquids. Thirsty people want a drink. To be thirsty is to feel like you need to drink something. People tend to get more thirsty on very hot days or during exercise, when a lot of their body's fluid is being sweated out. Eating can also make you thirsty, and so can waking up in the morning. The word thirsty comes from the Proto-Indo-European root ters, or "dry."
Vocabulary lists containing thirsty
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:
Most of the immigrants who had poured across the border Thursday and early Friday seemingly left of their own accord, hungry and thirsty after finding no help in the enclave.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 1, 2026
Drink water frequently throughout the day before you feel thirsty.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2026
Power and water outages have affected tens of thousands of buildings, leaving residents sweltering and thirsty, and fearing yet another repeat of the quake that struck 10 years ago.
From Barron's ● Jul. 30, 2026
Beatrix said: "Everyone was just so thirsty because it was so hot, and then no-one had any water or food or anything in the cars."
From BBC ● Jul. 18, 2026
She was hungry, thirsty, and exhausted, but she couldn’t quite relax, not yet.
From "Beasts of Prey" by Ayana Gray
When, last year, Congress suspended fuel economy penalties for light vehicles, Ford could afford to sell more of its larger, thirstier, more robust V8s.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 6, 2026
It is the largest city in the world not built on a water source, and the city of gold is getting thirstier.
From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2024
Rising temperatures, a thirstier atmosphere and the expansion of communities around the edges of the reserve put the Pine Barrens at risk.
From Scientific American ● Aug. 23, 2023
This warmer, thirstier atmosphere literally sucked water out of the region’s plants and soils, pushing large swaths of the region into what the U.S.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 27, 2023
It was the first week of Twelfthmoon, on the far side of the Elmuthaleth, and Strange the dreamer—library stowaway and scholar of fairy tales—had never been thirstier, or more full of wonder.
From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor
Meanwhile, the automaker’s biggest, thirstiest trucks are also its top sellers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 10, 2026
No one who watched is likely to forget Rubio’s awkward stare as he furtively reached for a water bottle, cementing his reputation as the thirstiest man in the U.S.
From Salon ● Oct. 23, 2025
Meanwhile, almonds — one of our thirstiest crops — are proliferating.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 27, 2023
That’s not good news for some of the thirstiest vehicles on the road: pickup trucks.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 13, 2022
A tumbler of this costs a halfpenny; its imbibing occupies two or three minutes, and assuages for hours the sufferings of the thirstiest palate.
From The Picturesque Antiquities of Spain Described in a series of letters, with illustrations representing Moorish palaces, cathedrals, and other monuments of art, contained in the cities of Burgos, Valladolid, Toledo, and Seville. by Nathaniel Armstrong Wells
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.
