starve

[stahrv] /stɑrv/
verb (used without object), starved, starving.
1.
to die or perish from lack of food or nourishment.
2.
to be in the process of perishing or suffering severely from hunger.
3.
to suffer from extreme poverty and need.
4.
to feel a strong need or desire:
The child was starving for affection.
5.
Chiefly British Dialect. to perish or suffer extremely from cold.
6.
Obsolete. to die.
verb (used with object), starved, starving.
7.
to cause to starve; kill, weaken, or reduce by lack of food.
8.
to subdue, or force to some condition or action, by hunger:
to starve a besieged garrison into a surrender.
9.
to cause to suffer for lack of something needed or craved.
10.
Chiefly British Dialect. to cause to perish, or to suffer extremely, from cold.
Origin
before 1000; Middle English sterven, Old English steorfan to die; cognate with German sterben
Related forms
half-starved, adjective
half-starving, adjective
self-starved, adjective
unstarved, adjective
Examples from the web for starve
  • They don't realize that when you starve people of opportunity it hurts everyone, including the people doing the starving.
  • People will starve, without being able to die of starvation.
  • But he could n't lie if you paid him and he'd starve before he stole.
  • They are as sick that surfeit with too much, as they that starve with nothing.
  • For otherwise a state may have a great stock, and yet starve.
  • It strikes us as wrong-or not obviously right-that some people starve while others have private jets.
  • To quell property prices, the government is trying to starve real-estate developers of financing.
  • Giving anorexic teenagers yet another reason to starve themselves is a bad idea.
  • The ordinary human being would sooner starve than live on brown bread and raw carrots.
  • Mocking the corporate establishment only encourages it to starve you of resources.
British Dictionary definitions for starve

starve

/stɑːv/
verb
1.
to die or cause to die from lack of food
2.
to deprive (a person or animal) or (of a person, etc) to be deprived of food
3.
(intransitive) (informal) to be very hungry
4.
foll by of or for. to deprive or be deprived (of something necessary), esp so as to cause suffering or malfunctioning: the engine was starved of fuel
5.
(transitive) foll by into. to bring (to) a specified condition by starving: to starve someone into submission
6.
(archaic) to be or cause to be extremely cold
Derived Forms
starver, noun
Word Origin
Old English steorfan to die; related to Old Frisian sterva to die, Old High German sterban to die
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.

starve in Medicine

starve (stärv)
v. starved, starv·ing, starves

  1. To suffer or die from extreme or prolonged lack of food.

  2. To deprive of food so as to cause suffering or death.