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# peckish

«peckish» in Mova's school dictionary: **A little bit hungry** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

adjective (informal, UK, Ireland, Australia, NZ)

### meaning for a pupil

(informal) A little bit hungry. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/peckish/#m1)

### sense in the lessons

An everyday British word: «I'm feeling a bit peckish» means you'd like a snack, not a big meal. It comes from birds pecking at food. In stories it gives a friendly, casual tone.

### examples

- I'm a bit peckish; can I have a biscuit? [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/peckish/#x1)
- Are you peckish? There's fruit in the bowl. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/peckish/#x2)
- By eleven o'clock I always feel peckish. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/peckish/#x3)
- The cat looks peckish. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/peckish/#x4)
- Grandad gets peckish before bed and eats toast. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/peckish/#x5)
- If you're peckish after school, have an apple. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/peckish/#x6)

### note

Informal adjective, mostly British, Irish and Australian English; less common in the USA. It means only a little hungry; «starving» or «ravenous» means very hungry.

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «peckish» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/peckish/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.