What is the meaning of はった when modifying a noun?


I found the following sample sentence in an Anki deck:

> 食い意地の **はった** 少年は料理を全部たいらげた。  
>  The greedy little child ate all the food.

I am wondering what the function of はった is here. The meaning of the sentence
would not seem to change if it were omitted. Is this the verb 這う? If so, is
the sense "crawling with greed" in the way that "crawling with" is used
figuratively in English to mean 'covered in'?

