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What is the exact difference between "I went to bed hungry" and "I went to bed hungrily"?

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Better on ELL. area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/41665/… – Kris Jan 26 at 7:17
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This is talking about being hungry for food, not for sex or something else, right? – Andrew Grimm Jan 26 at 7:40
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Patsy Cline sang a song back in the 1960s: Hungry for Love: 'I'm hungry for love // Like a hobo for food // Like the devil hunts for bad // Like the angel looks for good /// I've been oh, so lonesome // Your letters aren't enough // My arms will welcome you home, dear // I'm hungry for love". The singer went to bed hungrily. – Bill Franke Jan 26 at 8:12
Welcome to ELU, Journey Park. Please tell us what you found when you looked in the dictionary (you did look in the dictionary, didn't you?), and describe exactly why you're still puzzled. (It's OK to be more confused after reading the dictionary than you were before; happens to me all the time. But you have to "show your work"; otherwise, we have no way of knowing what you already know and where your confusion lies.) – Marthaª Jan 26 at 19:06

closed as general reference by Robusto, tchrist, Marthaª, MετάEd, Lynn Jan 26 at 20:09

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3 Answers

up vote 3 down vote

I think the main difference is that "I went to bed hungry" is common English usage. "I went to bed hungrily" is not.

In terms of meaning? I would say that the former means that you were hungry when you went to bed; maybe you didn't eat dinner. The latter implies that there was something unusual about the manner in which you went to bed.

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Not too unusual I hope, everyone should go to bed hungrily at least a few times in their lives. Hopefully with someone who is just as hungry for what will follow. – Jon Hanna Jan 26 at 12:59
up vote 5 down vote

A speaker who goes to bed hungry hasn’t had enough to eat. A speaker who goes to bed hungrily hasn’t had enough sex.

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up vote 1 down vote

The adjective hungry in I went to bed hungry attributes a quality to the pronoun I, giving more information about "me":

I, being hungry, went to bed.

The adverb hungrily in I went to bed hungrily attributes a quality to the verb went, just like That escalated quickly, giving more information about how "I" went to bed. So it would imply that

I went to bed in a rather hungry fashion (probably because there was a sexually attractive woman or man on the bed and I was going to do something to pleasure myself or because there was a loaf of bread on the bed and I was going to eat it, etc).

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