hungry, starve
飢 centers on a severe lack of food: being hungry or starving. It describes the state of needing nourishment.
飢 combines 食 (food) with 几, which likely contributes the sound. The character expresses hunger through the idea of lacking food.
The food radical 飠 on the left and the table-like 几 on the right suggest an empty table: no food means hunger.
For キ, imagine a hungry person searching for a key to the pantry: key -> キ, and without it they starve.
hunger; starvation
starvation; famine; hunger
famine; crop failure
(death from) starvation; starving to death
to starve; to be famished; to be hungry
Kyōhō famine (1732)
great famine; severe famine
Great Tempo Famine
Tenpō famine (1833-1836); Tempo famine
Tenmei famine (1782-1787); Temmei famine
to hunger for love; to starve for love
drought; water shortage
to be bloodthirsty
impoverishment of farmers because of a bumper harvest; decline in farmers' income caused by the sharply lower farm prices as a result of bumper harvests
a starved dog does not fear the rod
to suffer from hunger
to starve and freeze to death
starving and freezing to death
hunger and cold
starving people