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

He was a starveling lawyer, writing orations for practice in the hot, sandy afternoons; galloping his horse to & from a young man's fun in the Kansas night.

From Time Magazine Archive

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

And the academic division was reduced to a starveling $4,320,824 � less than the endowment of Mount Holyoke.

From Time Magazine Archive

Instinctively they recognize in this starveling stray a truly independent spirit.

From Time Magazine Archive

“I’m sure Jamison would rush out here with a box of chocolates and a featherbed if he knew there was a starveling half-cracked student living under his University. They’d crock her and you know it.”

From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss