starve
Americanverb (used without object)
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to die or perish from lack of food or nourishment.
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to be in the process of perishing or suffering severely from hunger.
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to suffer from extreme poverty and need.
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to feel a strong need or desire.
The child was starving for affection.
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Chiefly British Dialect. to perish or suffer extremely from cold.
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Obsolete. to die.
verb (used with object)
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to cause to starve; kill, weaken, or reduce by lack of food.
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to subdue, or force to some condition or action, by hunger.
to starve a besieged garrison into a surrender.
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to cause to suffer for lack of something needed or craved.
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Chiefly British Dialect. to cause to perish, or to suffer extremely, from cold.
verb
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to die or cause to die from lack of food
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to deprive (a person or animal) or (of a person, etc) to be deprived of food
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informal (intr) to be very hungry
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to deprive or be deprived (of something necessary), esp so as to cause suffering or malfunctioning
the engine was starved of fuel
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to bring (to) a specified condition by starving
to starve someone into submission
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archaic to be or cause to be extremely cold
Related Words
See hungry.
Other Word Forms
- half-starved adjective
- half-starving adjective
- self-starved adjective
- starver noun
- unstarved adjective
Etymology
Origin of starve
First recorded before 1000; Middle English sterven, Old English steorfan “to die”; cognate with German sterben
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Drivers have complained that because cars are energy starved this has led to unusual and counter-intuitive driving techniques - and there are various proposals to change the rules to make energy management easier.
From BBC
Weeks later, and more than 200 miles away, Inuit hunters found the expedition’s deserters, sick, and starving on the ice.
From Literature
“I am SO starved! I’m famished! If I don’t eat soon, I may simply die on the spot!”
From Literature
“Come to think of it, Rowdy,” I said, “I’m starving to death for a drink of water. Let’s go get a drink first and then we’ll really get after these monkeys.”
From Literature
“Oh, come, just one scoop. You won’t starve for it. Bet you haven’t had much fun in weeks, all that digging.”
From Literature
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
