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:
"When they've got dementia, they forget to ask about whether they feel thirsty," said manager Shiny Mathappan.
From Barron's ● Jun. 25, 2026
You don't want to wake up thirsty - but you don't want to have to take an additional trip to the bathroom in the early hours either.
From BBC ● Jun. 22, 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
I drink all the water in my plastic bottle, but I'm still thirsty.
From "Born Behind Bars" by Padma Venkatraman
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
What’s more, research has shown that as the planet has warmed, the atmosphere has become thirstier, sucking more moisture from plants and soils and ensuring that dry years are drier.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 24, 2025
"The warmer, thirstier atmosphere is more effective at drying soils, meaning heatwaves are intensifying, with moderate heat events now becoming extreme."
From BBC ● Jul. 1, 2025
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
“I’m getting thirstier every minute. If it didn’t hurt you, it won’t hurt me. If my papa was here, he’d let me have some.”
From "Tuck Everlasting" by Natalie Babbit
Meanwhile, the automaker’s biggest, thirstiest trucks are also its top sellers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 10, 2026
Shadowed by a towering mountain range, Sequim experiences the Olympic Peninsula’s thirstiest microclimate with only 17 inches of rain annually — compared to 37 inches in Seattle.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 22, 2023
The cultivation of almonds, the thirstiest of all food crops, expanded by 78% between 2010 and 2022; at least half of those dozen years were in periods of extreme drought.
From Salon ● Mar. 22, 2023
Wonderful’s almond and pistachio trees are among the thirstiest crops in California, where the availability of water is likely to shrink as a result of climate change.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2019
It had a famous bar, to which rode the sheep-herders, the cowboys, the ranchers, the dry-farmers of the surrounding country—yes, and sometimes, thirstiest of all, the workmen from more distant oil-fields, a dangerous crew.
From Hidden Creek by Burt, Katharine Newlin
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.
