famish

[fam-ish]

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verb (used with or without object) Archaic.

to suffer or cause to suffer extreme hunger; starve.

to starve to death.

Origin of famish

1350–1400; Middle English famisshe, equivalent to famen to starve (< Anglo-French, Middle French afamer < Vulgar Latin *affamāre, equivalent to Latin af- af- + famāre, derivative of famēs hunger) + -isshe -ish²

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for famish

abstain, forbear, diet, refrain, starve

Examples from the Web for famish

Historical Examples of famish

I sat on a hay-stack, and spoke nothing for some hours; for I was to famish them from words.
George Fox
George Fox
Never varlets So triumph'd o'er an old fat man: I was famish'd.
The Plays of Philip Massinger
Philip Massinger
Already languishing from sheer fatigue, must she now famish also?
A Gentleman Player
Robert Neilson Stephens
I famish to begin again—and I will make time for that, and the girls too!
The Young Step-Mother
Charlotte M. Yonge
Relief must soon come from some quarter, else many in this community will famish.
A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital
John Beauchamp Jones

British Dictionary definitions for famish

famish

verb

(now usually passive) to be or make very hungry or weak

archaic to die or cause to die from starvation

Irish to make very coldI was famished with the cold

Derived Formsfamishment, noun

Word Origin for famish

C14: from Old French afamer, via Vulgar Latin, from Latin famēs famine

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for famish

c.1400, famyschen, alteration of famen (late 14c.), a shortening of Old French afamer, from Vulgar Latin *affamare "to bring to hunger," from ad famem, from Latin fames "hunger" (see famine).

Ending changed mid-14c. to -ish under influence of ravish, anguish, etc. The intransitive sense is from 1520s. Related: Famished; famishing.