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Webster 1913 Edition

Starve

Starve

(stärv)
,
Verb.
I.
[
imp. & p. p.
Starved
(stärvd)
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Starving
.]
[OE.
sterven
to die, AS.
steorfan
; akin to D.
sterven
, G.
sterben
, OHG.
sterban
, Icel.
starf
labor, toil.]
1.
To die; to perish.
[Obs., except in the sense of perishing with cold or hunger.]
Lydgate.
In hot coals he hath himself raked . . .
Thus
starved
this worthy mighty Hercules.
Chaucer.
2.
To perish with hunger; to suffer extreme hunger or want; to be very indigent.
Sometimes virtue
starves
, while vice is fed.
Pope.
3.
To perish or die with cold.
Spenser.
Have I seen the naked
starve
for cold?
Sandys.
Starving
with cold as well as hunger.
W. Irving.
☞ In this sense, still common in England, but rarely used in the United States.

Starve

,
Verb.
T.
1.
To destroy with cold.
[Eng.]
From beds of raging fire, to
starve
in ice
Their soft ethereal warmth.
Milton.
2.
To kill with hunger;
as, maliciously to
starve
a man is, in law, murder
.
3.
To distress or subdue by famine;
as, to
starve
a garrison into a surrender
.
Attalus endeavored to
starve
Italy by stopping their convoy of provisions from Africa.
Arbuthnot.
4.
To destroy by want of any kind;
as, to
starve
plants by depriving them of proper light and air
.
5.
To deprive of force or vigor; to disable.
The pens of historians, writing thereof, seemed
starved
for matter in an age so fruitful of memorable actions.
Fuller.
The powers of their minds are
starved
by disuse.
Locke.

Webster 1828 Edition

Starve

STARVE

,
Verb.
I.
[G., to die, either by disease or hunger, or by a wound.]
1.
To perish; to be destroyed. [In this general sense, obsolete.]
2.
To perish or die with cold; as, to starve with cold. [This sense is retained in England, but not in the United States.
3.
To perish with hunger. [This sense is retained in England and the United States.]
4.
To suffer extreme hunger or want; to be very indigent.
Sometimes virtue starves, while vice is fed.

STARVE

,
Verb.
T.
1.
To kill with hunger. Maliciously to starve a man is, in law, murder.
2.
To distress or subdue by famine; as, to starve a garrison into a surrender.
3.
To destroy by want; as, to starve plants by the want of nutriment.
4.
To kill with cold. [Not in use in the United States.]
From beds of raging fire to starve in ice their soft ethereal warmth--
5.
To deprive of force or vigor.
The powers of their minds are starved by disuse. [Unusual.]

Definition 2024

starve

starve

English

Verb

starve ‎(third-person singular simple present starves, present participle starving, simple past starved or (obsolete) starf or (obsolete) storve, past participle starved or (obsolete) storven)

  1. (intransitive, obsolete) To die; in later use especially to die slowly, waste away.
    • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.i.4:
      noble Britomart / Released her, that else was like to starve, / Through cruell knife that her deare heart did kerue.
  2. (intransitive) To die because of lack of food or of not eating.
    • 2007, Lisa Wingate, A Thousand Voices‎, page 76:
      "When all of you starve to death, Shasta, don't come crying to me, that's all."
  3. (intransitive) To be very hungry.
    Hey, ma, I'm starving!
  4. (transitive) To destroy, make capitulate or at least make suffer by deprivation, notably of food.
  5. (transitive) To deprive of nourishment.
    They starved the child until it withered away.
  6. (transitive, Britain, especially Yorkshire and Lancashire) To kill with cold.
    I was half starved waiting out in that wind.

Translations

Derived terms

Anagrams

Etymology

From Middle English sterven, from Old English steorfan ‎(“to die”), from Proto-Germanic *sterbaną ‎(“to become stiff, die”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)terp- ‎(“to lose strength, become numb, be motionless”); or from Proto-Indo-European *sterbʰ- ‎(“to become stiff”), from Proto-Indo-European *ster- ‎(“stiff”); or a conflation of the aforementioned. Cognate with Scots sterve ‎(“to die, perish”), Saterland Frisian stjerwa ‎(“to die”), West Frisian stjerre ‎(“to die”), Dutch sterven ‎(“to die”), German Low German starven ‎(“to die”), German sterben ‎(“to die”), Icelandic stirfinn ‎(“peevish, froward”), Albanian shterp ‎(“sterile, unproductive, barren land”).

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /stɑː(ɹ)v/
  • Rhymes: -ɑː(r)v

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