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.
“You’re going to probably starve the person to death before you starve the cancer to death,” she said.
From Slate • Mar. 30, 2026
Sir Keir Starmer said the move would starve "Putin's war machine of the dirty profits that fund his barbaric campaign".
From BBC • Mar. 25, 2026
“That is your body not wanting you to starve to death.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 16, 2026
"I warned loved ones that I might be arrested, leaving a spare set of keys and hoping my cat wouldn't starve in my absence."
From Barron's • Mar. 5, 2026
The cows would grow thin and sometimes starve to death.
From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck
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.
