ill-fed

Examples

• All

• Ill-fed, ill-clothed, so afflicted that even my presence brightens their day.

  Fiction book (1999)

• The tribes formed distinct political entities and lived by slash-and-burn and by shifting cultivation in the clearings, not rooted to any one place, ill-fed and, apart from a few coastal dwellers who had participated in trade, they led their traditional existence sheltered from the outside world, as if on another planet.

  Academic text (1992)

• Owners of the slaves leased to Cuyler complained that their workers were ill-fed and ill-clothed.

  Academic text (2007)

• George Bernard Shaw might have measured a suitable comment here: "But there are millions of poor people, abject people, dirty people, ill-fed, ill-clothed people," said Stephen Undershaft in Major Barbara.

  Fiction book (1990)

• Ill-fed children are more difficult to teach, and without an education, will simply repeat the cycle of poverty.

• Yet there are those in this country who are ill-fed, ill-clothed, and ill-housed.

• Factories are idle for lack of fuel, and ill-fed workers are reported to be dismantling factory machinery and bartering the scrap metal for food from China.

Synonyms

E

emaciated

vsill-fed

8 7.8

Extremely thin from illness or lack of food with bones showing

focuses on insufficient food without highlighting thin physical appearance

M

malnourished

vsill-fed

4 5.6

A person or animal that does not have enough food and is weak

refers mainly to insufficient food intake rather than resulting health decline

U

underfed

vsill-fed

3 3.4

Not having enough food to be healthy

is the common everyday term for that same lack of nourishment

F

famished

vsill-fed

• Informal

1 5.1

Very hungry and needing to eat right away

describes a general inadequate nourishment state rather than sudden extreme hunger

U

undernourished

vsill-fed

1 4.4

Not having enough food to stay healthy and grow

focuses more on simply not having enough food than on growth effects

S

starving

vsill-fed

1 1.4

Very hungry and needing food now

describes a less severe condition of inadequate nourishment, not life threatening

U

unnourished

vsill-fed

7.5

Not having enough food or nutrients to grow and stay healthy

frames the situation as a lack of food rather than a missing provision act

S

starved

vsill-fed

2.1

A person or animal who is very hungry because they have no food

is milder, indicating ongoing inadequate nourishment rather than extreme hunger

Antonyms

W

well-fed

20 1.1

Not hungry because you have eaten enough food

N

nourished

2.7

Having enough good food to be healthy and grow

How Undernourished

starving

1 1.4

malnourished

4 5.6

undernourished

1 4.4

ill-fed

1 5.5

underfed

3 3.4

Surface Forms

Morphology

Etymology