starve
verbUK /stɑːv/ · US /stɑɹv/
Etymology
From Middle English sterven (“to die, perish”), from Old English steorfan (“to die, perish”), from Proto-West Germanic *sterban, from Proto-Germanic *sterbaną (“to become stiff, die”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)terp- (“to lose strength, become numb, be motionless”); or from Proto-Indo-European *sterbʰ- (“to become stiff”), from *ster- (“stiff”); or a conflation of the aforementioned. Cognate with Scots stairve, sterve (“to die, perish, starve”), Saterland Frisian stjerwa (“to die”), West Frisian stjerre (“to die”), Dutch sterven (“to die”), German Low German starven (“to die”), German sterben (“to die”), Icelandic stirfinn (“peevish, froward”), Albanian shterp (“sterile, unproductive, barren land”).
11 senses
- 1To die because of lack of food or of not eating.
- 2To suffer severely because of lack of food or of not eating.
- 3To be very hungry.
- 4To kill or attempt to kill by depriving of food.
- 5To make suffer severely by depriving of food.
- 6To force a combatant to submit or surrender by depriving…
- 7To force a population center to submit or surrender by…
- 8To deprive of nourishment or of some vital component.
- 9To deteriorate for want of any essential thing.
- 10To kill with cold; to (cause to) die from cold.
- 11To die; in later use especially to die slowly, waste away.
To die because of lack of food or of not eating.
- During the Cultural Revolution I was exiled to Xincai County in Henan Province. There, 36 percent of the people starved to death in the early 1960s.1990, Chen Yizi (陳一諮), quotee, Children of the Dragon: The Story of Tiananmen Square, →ISBN, page 48:
- "When all of you starve to death, Shasta, don't come crying to me, that's all."2007, Lisa Wingate, A Thousand Voices, page 76:
To suffer severely because of lack of food or of not eating.
- Ah (ſaid the Ape as ſighing vvondrous ſad) / Its an hard caſe, vvhen men of good deſeruing / Muſt either driuen be perforce to ſteruing, / Or asked for their pas by euerie ſquib: […]1591, Ed[mund] Sp[enser], “Prosopopoia. Or Mother Hubberds Tale.”, in Complaints. Containing Sundrie Small Poemes of the Worlds Vanitie. […], London: […] William Ponsonbie, […], →OCLC:
- ..., and the little half-starved, stunted girl of twelve, with her brown arms and steady, unerring aim, will hammer out half a bundle, IS. 6½d.1884, Jacob Schoenhof, The Destructive Influence of the Tariff Upon Manufacture and Commerce and the Figures and Facts Relating Thereto, page 62:
To be very hungry.
- I was starving so I wrote S.O.S. on the desert island using rocks.
To kill or attempt to kill by depriving of food.
To make suffer severely by depriving of food.
To force a combatant to submit or surrender by depriving of food, as in a targeted siege.
- If they refuse to surrender the garrison, we'll just starve them out.
Dated To force a population center to submit or surrender by depriving of food, as in sieges in international armed conflicts.
- Some historians have since classified the Siege of Leningrad as a genocide due to the intentional destruction of the city and the systematic starvation of its civilian population.
To deprive of nourishment or of some vital component.
- The uncaring parents starved the child of love.
- The patient’s brain was starved of oxygen.
2 more examples
- Mildly it [the wind] kiſt our ſailes, and, freſh, and ſvveet, / As, to a ſtomack ſterv'd, vvhoſe inſides meete, / Meate comes, it came; and ſvvole our ſailes, vvhen vvee / So joyd, as Sara' her ſvvelling joy'd to ſee.a. 1631 (date written), J[ohn] Donne, “The Storme. To Mr. Christopher Brooke.”, in Poems, […] with Elegies on the Authors Death, London: […] M[iles] F[lesher] for Iohn Marriot, […], published 1633, →OCLC, page 57:
- Let them not ſtill be obſtinately blind, / Still to divert the Good thou haſt deſign'd, / Or vvith Malignant penury, / To ſterve the Royal Vertues of his Mind.1685, John Dryden, Threnodia Augustalis: A Funeral-Pindarique Poem Sacred to the Happy Memory of King Charles II, London: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC, stanza XVIII, page 24:
To deteriorate for want of any essential thing.
UK To kill with cold; to (cause to) die from cold.
Especially Yorkshire and Lancashire
- I was half starved waiting out in that wind.
- Wheniver he wor starved, he used to get th' seck o' coils ov his back, an' walk raand th' haase till he gat warm agean.1869 February, John Hartley, The original illuminated clock almanack:
2 more examples
- One i' th' morning an' me starv'd to th' death wi' waitin' up.1886, A Queer Supper, John Heywood, section 8:
- Sometimes he remarks, “ ’Tis these dreadful frostis that spiles everything. ’Tis enough to sterve anybody.”1898, J. Arthur Gibbs, “When the May-Fly is Up”, in A Cotswold village; or, Country Life & Pursuits in Gloucestershire, London: John Murray, →OCLC, page 164:
Obsolete To die; in later use especially to die slowly, waste away.
- Seuen moneths he ſo her kept in bitter ſmart, / Becauſe his ſinfull luſt ſhe would not ſerue, / Vntill ſuch time as noble Britomart / Releaſed her, that elſe was like to ſterue / Through cruell knife that her deare heart did kerue.1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, stanza 4, page 6:
- Derived terms
29 terms
bitstarve, cash-starved, feed a cold, starve a fever, ha'penny starver, hunger-starve, nonstarved, nonstarving, overstarve, penny starver, prestarved, semistarved, sex-starved, starvation, starve-acre, starved, starvedly, starve-gutted, starveling, starve out, starver, starve the bardies, starve the beast, starve the crows, starve the lizards, starving, starving artist, starvingly, unstarved, while the grass grows, the steed starves