when someone is so hungry and they behave strangely

[alpacinou]

Hello.

In my language we have a humorous idiom which is used when someone is extremely hungry and they behave in a crazy way. It literally translates to "When he becomes hungry he doesn't recognize his parents and he could eat them."

Is there something similar in English which is used when someone is so hungry and they behave in a crazy way?

I already know "I'm so hungry I could eat a horse". But that is difference. You sort of want to make fun of the behavior of the person who is hungry.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

I can't think of a common expression that means that.

I've always liked our expression for someone who has a hearty appetite: She has a hollow leg.

 

[alpacinou]

I can't think of a common expression that means that.

I've always liked our expression for someone who has a hearty appetite: She has a hollow leg.

I hope we can find an idiom which basically means "he loses his mind when he becomes hungry".

 

[tedmc]

A hungry man is an angry man.

 

[emsr2d2]

The word you need is "hangry". It's a fairly recent addition to my vocabulary but I now hear it quite a lot. It is, of course, a combination of "hungry" and "angry". I would say that it covers people who behave angrily and a bit crazily when hungry.

 

[Skrej]

The Snickers brand of candy bar had an ad campaign starting back in 2010 with a slogan of "You're not you when you're hungry." The commercials featured grumpy people having bad moments, whereupon eating a Snickers they transformed back into their regular "better" self.

My favorite was the one with Betty White getting tackled during a football game. It never gets old. :lol:

I, too, adopted the 'hangry' term when I first heard it a number of years ago. It often describes me perfectly.

Edit: Here's a compilation of such adds, including some international ones. They're great, because even if you don't speak a word of the language, you still understand them perfectly.

 

[Rover_KE]

alpacinoutd, I've moved your thread.

Please post threads asking for our comments on your writing (and ways to improve it) here in the Editing & Writing Topics forum.