From the same as penes (through the idea of pinching toil; "pine"); to famish (absolutely or comparatively); figuratively, to crave -- be an hungered.
see GREEK penes
a. properly: Matthew 4:2; Matthew 12:1, 3; Matthew 21:18; Matthew 25:35, 37, 42, 44; Mark 2:25; Mark 11:12; Luke 4:2; Luke 6:3, 25; equivalent to to suffer want, Romans 12:20; 1 Corinthians 11:21, 34; to be needy, Luke 1:53; Luke 6:21; Philippians 4:12; in this same sense it is joined with δίψαν, 1 Corinthians 4:11; in figurative discourse, οὐ πεινᾶν καί οὐ δίψαν is used to describe the condition of one who is in need of nothing requisite for his real (spiritual) life and salvation, John 6:35; Revelation 7:16.
b. metaphorically, to crave ardently, to seek with eager desire: with the accusative of the thing, τήν δικαιοσύνην, Matthew 5:6 (in the better Greek authors with a genitive as χρημάτων, Xenophon, Cyril 8, 3, 39; συμμαχων, 7, 5, 50; ἐπαινου, oec. 13, 9; cf. Winers Grammar, § 30, 10, b. at the end; (Buttmann, § 131, 4); Kuinoel on Matthew 5:6, and see διψάω, 2).