starveling

American  

[stahrv-ling] / ˈstɑrv lɪŋ /

noun

1. a person, animal, or plant that is starving.

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adjective

1. starving; suffering from lack of nourishment.

2. pining with want.

3. poverty-stricken.

4. poor in condition or quality.

5. such as to entail or suggest starvation.

starveling British  

/ ˈstɑːvlɪŋ /

noun

1. 1. a starving or poorly fed person, animal, etc

   2. ( as modifier )

      a starveling child

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adjective

1. insufficient; meagre; scant

Etymology

Origin of starveling

First recorded in 1540–50; starve + -ling ¹

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

starveling

During the postwar decade, first as a starveling poet and then as tutor at Magdalen College, he felt something else at his back-the Hound of Heaven.

From Time Magazine Archive

From the starveling stepchild of industry, scientific experimentation has become an industry in itself?perhaps the key industry.

From Time Magazine Archive

It is then frozen and shipped to the starveling.

From Time Magazine Archive

When her parents brought her to Dr. Charles M. Clark at Western Navajo Hospital in Tuba City, Patty was a wizened starveling of 9 lbs., with miliary TB.

From Time Magazine Archive

In no time at all, the stiff barbs of his minuscule feathers broke through their pale blue quillskins, and Pacheco found himself feeding a greedy, plump fluffball instead of a naked starveling.

From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols