thirsty
Americanadjective
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feeling or having thirst; craving liquid.
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needing moisture, as land; parched; dry or arid.
the thirsty soil.
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eagerly desirous; eager.
thirsty for news.
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causing thirst.
Digging is thirsty work.
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Slang.
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eager for attention or approval.
thirsty celebrities.
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desperate for affection, sex, or sexual attention.
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adjective
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feeling a desire to drink
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dry; arid
the thirsty soil
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(foll by for) feeling an eager desire
thirsty for information
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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:
First, kids were thirsty for social experience, says Sam Coates, a Lego vice president who was on the trip.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 18, 2026
"When they've got dementia, they forget to ask about whether they feel thirsty," said manager Shiny Mathappan.
From Barron's ● Jun. 25, 2026
If she’s thirsty, she has access to an automatically refilling bowl.
From Slate ● Jun. 20, 2026
But as drought and wildfires dragged on in California in recent years, she started to question whether keeping the thirsty lawn made sense.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 10, 2026
His bandaged arm no longer pained him, and while he was still hungry and thirsty, the water he had drunk had taken some of the edge from his discomfort.
From "The Book of Three" by Lloyd Alexander
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
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
And the atmosphere over much of the U.S. has grown a lot thirstier over the past 40 years, a new study in the Journal of Hydrometeorology found.
From Scientific American ● Jul. 4, 2022
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
While urban areas such as Los Angeles demand a significant amount of California’s water, they are far from the thirstiest sector in the state.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2022
That’s not good news for some of the thirstiest vehicles on the road: pickup trucks.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 13, 2022
There where the clay was thirstiest and driest was heard a continual sound as of drinking, the panting of burning lips which yielded to the fullness of the storm.
From Romance of the Rabbit by Edgerton, Gladys
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.
