According to Naver Korean dictionary, '굶주리다' means:
동사 (verb)
먹을 것이 없어서 배를 곯다. Starve without anything to eat.
The verb seems to be related with '굶다' which means:
동사 (verb)
「…을」 끼니를 거르다. Skip one's meal.
What's the difference between the two verbs? Does '주리다' in '굶주리다' have any special function in Korean?
According to the Daum dictionary, http://dic.daum.net/word/view.do?wordid=kkw000235678&supid=kku000301188, '주리다' and '굶주리다' has same meaning.
주리다 : 1. 먹을 만큼 먹지 못하여 배를 곯다
In english, (I'm not sure this is perfect translation)
starving because of not eating something enough
For a reference, 곯다 is also similar word.
굶다 is usually simply describing a person who stopped eating a meal.
Example: 종일 굶었더니 배고파 견딜 수가 없다. -> Being hungry the whole day, I cannot endure anymore.
굶주리다 tend to be used when starvation occurs, which has a larger scale in most cases.
Yet I don't think this is a big difference.
I would tend to think like this:
Using 굶주리다, you are expressing strong desire to eat when you are hungry. Using 굶다, however, does not express this meaning.
Correct me if I am wrong.
1) 굶다 skip one time
점심을 굶다. I do not eat lunch.
2) 주리다 = 굶주리다 skip several times.
배고픔에 굶주리니 병을 얻었다 I did not eat frequently so that I obtained an illness.
@주리다 is not used frequently in a real situation.
3) 곯다 rotten or a bad situation
달걀이 곯았다. This egg was rotten.
나는 먹을 것이 없어 배가 곯다. Because I have no food, so my stomach is in bad situation.
(= I did not eat frequently so that my stomach does not work = 나는 굶주렸다)
