STARVE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Starve

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verb

Starve v. t.

1.

To destroy with cold. (Eng.) "From beds of raging fire, to starve in ice Their soft ethereal warmth."

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."

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." "The powers of their minds are starved by disuse."

Starve v. i. (past & past part. starved; pres. part. starving)

1.

To die; to perish. (Obs., except in the sense of perishing with cold or hunger.) "In hot coals he hath himself raked... Thus starved this worthy mighty Hercules."

2.

To perish with hunger; to suffer extreme hunger or want; to be very indigent. "Sometimes virtue starves, while vice is fed."

3.

To perish or die with cold. "Have I seen the naked starve for cold?" "Starving with cold as well as hunger." Note: In this sense, still common in England, but rarely used in the United States.

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Etymology of 'Starve'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Starve" Quotes from Famous Books

... fed and sheltered, and little human creeturs like the widow Larkum's there can starve for all the great folks cares. Deary me! it's a terble onjointed sort of world; seems to me I could regilate things better myself. Well, a good afternoon, ...

— Medoline Selwyn's Work • Mrs. J. J. Colter

... pretty women—for what? Here there can be nothing for me but Indians, hard work, privation, and trouble. Yet I could not get here quickly enough. Pshaw! What use to speak of the possibilities of a new country. I cannot deceive myself. It is she. I would walk a thousand miles and starve myself for months just for one glimpse of her sweet face. Knowing this what care I for all the rest. How strange she should ride down to the old sycamore tree yesterday the moment I was there and thinking of her. Evidently she had just returned from her visit. ...

— Betty Zane • Zane Grey

... with a sneer. 'That stock hain't a long life in the bush, I guess. A storekeeper hain't no business on it, nohow—'twould starve him out; so Uncle Zack don't keep it.' And his unpleasant little eyes twinkled again at the idea of such unwonted connection as his father ...

— Cedar Creek - From the Shanty to the Settlement • Elizabeth Hely Walshe

... between England and a combination of foreign powers possessed of stronger ironclads than ours, and that they were able to ram our ships back into port and land an enemy of overpowering force on the Essex coast, it would be sufficient for them to occupy or cut the railways leading from the north, to starve London into submission in ...

— Lives of the Engineers - The Locomotive. George and Robert Stephenson • Samuel Smiles

... along the best we can for a whole winter, but we nearly starve to death, and then the next spring when we getting a little patch planted Mistress go into Bonham and come back and say we all free ...

— Slave Narratives, Oklahoma - A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From - Interviews with Former Slaves • Various

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