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"I am hungry to die" doesn't mean that I am dying because of hunger, rather, "I want to die a lot."

How about "I am thirsty to die?" Does this mean "I am dying because of thirst?"

I want to know the real meaning of this expression.

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I think neither I am hungry to die, nor the alternative I hunger to [do something]), work at all well with the specific action of dying. In fact there are no instances in Google Books of either form. To my mind, "an appetite for death" usually implies someone else's death. But "an appetite for life" invariably does mean your own life. – FumbleFingers Oct 27 '12 at 15:38

4 Answers

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I am thirsty to die.

The above sentence is more likely to mean "I desperately want to die". It may be considered similar to "I am hungry to die".

If you want to imply "I am dying because of thirst", you can say "I am dying of thirst".

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"I am thirsty" stands on its own. A literary or poetic form might be "I thirst to die" but "I am thirsty to die" just sounds awkward.

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I am hungry to die and I am thirsty to die both mean the same thing: one has a strong wish to die.

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+1 I don't seem to see the "as if he were longing for food or water" connect? The reference in this usage is not to food/ water at all. – Kris Oct 27 '12 at 9:12
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The secondary meanings of hunger and thirst are quite the same.
hunger: Have a strong desire or craving for
thirst: An insistent desire; a craving

Either phrase can be used in the idiomatic sense of a strong desire.
"I am thirsty to die" means the same thing as "I am hungry to die."

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This is true, of course, but as a footnote, I think I'd be more likely to say "I hunger to die," or "I thist to die" before "I am thirsty to die." – J.R. Oct 27 '12 at 9:56
For a word or phrase, having a sense corresponding to an acknowledged (near-)synonym does not guarantee acceptability in all situations where the synonym is itself acceptable. Collocations are notoriously unpredictable. Try switching 'strong' and 'powerful' in the collocations 'strong tea' and 'powerful computer'. 'Thirsty to die' may not force a new polysemic sense on 'thirsty', but, having 58 Google hits, mostly inter-related, at my space-time coordinates, is less acceptable than 'purple aardvark'. – Edwin Ashworth Nov 12 '12 at 9:33

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