starveling

American  

[stahrv-ling] / ˈstɑrv lɪŋ /

noun

1. a person, animal, or plant that is starving.

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adjective

1. starving; suffering from lack of nourishment.

2. pining with want.

3. poverty-stricken.

4. poor in condition or quality.

5. such as to entail or suggest starvation.

starveling British  

/ ˈstɑːvlɪŋ /

noun

1. 1. a starving or poorly fed person, animal, etc

   2. ( as modifier )

      a starveling child

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adjective

1. insufficient; meagre; scant

Etymology

Origin of starveling

First recorded in 1540–50; starve + -ling ¹

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

starveling

When the U. S. Army was a peacetime starveling, this Kilkenny cat-spat was just another bureaucratic brawl.

From Time Magazine Archive

Held to a starveling 22-yds. rushing in the first half, the Patriots went into the break trailing 13-9.

From Time Magazine Archive

He was a starveling lawyer, writing orations for practice in the hot, sandy afternoons; galloping his horse to & from a young man's fun in the Kansas night.

From Time Magazine Archive

During the postwar decade, first as a starveling poet and then as tutor at Magdalen College, he felt something else at his back-the Hound of Heaven.

From Time Magazine Archive

And Carmel, begun by starveling writers and unwanted painters, is now a community of the well-to-do and the retired.

From "Travels with Charley in Search of America" by John Steinbeck