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starve

[stahrv]
|
SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR starve ON THESAURUS.COM

verb (used without object), starved, starv·ing.

verb (used with object), starved, starv·ing.

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RELATED WORDS

quit, renounce, refrain, withhold, forgo, cease, shun, require, demand, abstain, forbear, decline, refuse, spurn, avoid, eschew, stop, fast, abjure, curb

Origin of starve

before 1000; Middle English sterven, Old English steorfan to die; cognate with German sterben
Related formshalf-starved, adjectivehalf-starv·ing, adjectiveself-starved, adjectiveun·starved, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for starve

Contemporary Examples of starve

Historical Examples of starve

  • We would do anything in our power for Sergeant Wilde and for the cause, but we cannot starve!'

    The Grand Old Man

    Richard B. Cook

  • Old, a lot of them, and gettin' well to go out and starve, and—My God!

    K

    Mary Roberts Rinehart

  • You may hang a man if you like, but you have no right to starve him.

  • Content to starve, content to freeze, if only he need not be carried into captivity.

    The Village Watch-Tower

    (AKA Kate Douglas Riggs) Kate Douglas Wiggin

  • Leaving me here hungry and thirsty and tired, to starve, for anything they care!

    Little Dorrit

    Charles Dickens

British Dictionary definitions for starve

starve

verb

to die or cause to die from lack of food
to deprive (a person or animal) or (of a person, etc) to be deprived of food
(intr) informal to be very hungry
(foll by of or for) to deprive or be deprived (of something necessary), esp so as to cause suffering or malfunctioningthe engine was starved of fuel
(tr foll by into) to bring (to) a specified condition by starvingto starve someone into submission
archaic to be or cause to be extremely cold
Derived Formsstarver, noun

Word Origin for starve

Old English steorfan to die; related to Old Frisian sterva to die, Old High German sterban to die
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 starve
v.

Old English steorfan "to die" (past tense stearf, past participle storfen), from Proto-Germanic *sterban "be stiff" (cf. Old Frisian sterva, Dutch sterven, Old High German sterban "to die," Old Norse stjarfi "tetanus"), from PIE root *ster- "stiff, rigid" (cf. Greek sterphnios "stiff, rigid," sterphos "hide, skin," Old Church Slavonic strublu "strong, hard;" see stare).

The conjugation became weak in English by 16c. The sense narrowed to "die of cold" (14c.); meaning "to kill with hunger" is first recorded 1520s (earlier to starve of hunger, early 12c.). Intransitive sense of "to die of hunger" dates from 1570s. German cognate sterben retains the original sense of the word, but the English has come so far from its origins that starve to death (1910) is now common.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Medicine definitions for starve

starve

[stärv]

v.

To suffer or die from extreme or prolonged lack of food.
To deprive of food so as to cause suffering or death.
The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.