starve
Americanverb (used without object)
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starves,
present (3rd person singular)
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starved,
past participle, past
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starving
present participle
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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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starves,
present (3rd person singular)
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starved,
past participle, past
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starving
present participle
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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
Synonym Usage
See hungry.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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starvernoun
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half-starvedadjective
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half-starvingadjective
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self-starvedadjective
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unstarvedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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starvesimple
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starvessimple
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have starvedperfect
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has starvedperfect
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am starvingprogressive
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are starvingprogressive
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is starvingprogressive
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have been starvingperfect progressive
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has been starvingperfect progressive
Past
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starvedsimple
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had starvedperfect
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was starvingprogressive
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were starvingprogressive
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had been starvingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of starve
First recorded before 1000; Middle English sterven, Old English steorfan “to die”; cognate with German sterben
Explanation
The verb starve means suffering or death caused by a lack of food, though people also use it as a dramatic way to say they are hungry, as in, "If we don't start cooking dinner now, I think I'll starve." The word starve has origins in the Old English word steorfan, meaning “to die.” It is true that if you don't eat for a period of time, you could starve, meaning die from hunger. Today, starve is also used to describe less severe limitations on food, such as when you tell your friend, "I have to go to lunch now. I'm starving." This is a way of describing discomfort caused by hunger.
Vocabulary lists containing starve
"When Cultures Meet"
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Cormac McCarthy's "The Road"
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Excerpt from "A Raisin in the Sun"
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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.
See Examples For:
Angela Adams said her pets were her "babies", adding: "I would rather starve than they starve."
From BBC ● Oct. 17, 2026
Environmental advocates contend it would starve the Delta and threaten fish already in severe decline.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
Buybacks aren’t accounting trickery, and they don’t starve companies of capital unless done recklessly.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026
Joshua Kushner and his family, one imagines, will not starve.
From Salon ● Aug. 2, 2026
And Sam and Mom never let us starve, even if we have to do without TV or a toaster for a little while.
From "Free Lunch" by Rex Ogle
And as the government shutdown starves the markets of official data, any individual announcement from a company can take on more meaning.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 28, 2025
When society fails to honor difference, it starves itself of innovation, empathy and depth.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2025
It isolates the cell from the surrounding tissue and essentially starves it of nutrients.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 28, 2024
But since the keto diet has a very low carbohydrate intake, it's thought that this "starves" the cancer cells of the energy they need to grow.
From Salon ● Jun. 21, 2023
“Nobody in Germany starves, and few, if any, go hungry,” he wrote.
From "Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Despite their remarkable success from April through September, the Brewers hadn’t advanced to the Fall Classic since 1982, leaving their rabid fan base starved for a return to baseball’s grandest stage.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 29, 2026
“In 2022 you had all these wind investments, and other power generators starved for capital,” while at that time Altius, under Dalton’s direction, “was buying up assets left and right.”
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 20, 2026
Has your group been starved for funding for some time, a sign executives are prioritizing other departments?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 12, 2026
Fragmented among hundreds of armed groups and starved of arms, the resistance has lost ground in recent months, but still controls large parts of the country.
From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2026
When he was at the railroad plant and yards, he asked the foreman, "How are these poor people keeping alive? They appear to me to be starved."
From Nazi Saboteurs by Samantha Seiple
KYIV—A temporary ceasefire took effect early on Tuesday in the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky in southern Ukraine, where civilians have been starving since food deliveries stopped earlier this year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 27, 2026
Former residents told AFP earlier this year that those remaining in the city were starving, lacked medicine and could not easily leave.
From Barron's ● Oct. 27, 2026
“That’s starving the world of diesel,” York said, just as demand for the fuel is picking up.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 1, 2026
That’s one of their major clients, because if you feed starving nations, people like the United States better.
From Salon ● Sep. 30, 2026
And there were insects he could eat if it came to a choice of that or starving.
From "Abel's Island" by William Steig
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