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View synonyms for starve

starve

[ stahrv ]

verb (used without object)

, starved, starv·ing.
  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, starv·ing.
  1. to cause to starve; kill, weaken, or reduce by lack of food.
  2. to subdue, or force to some condition or action, by hunger:

    to starve a besieged garrison into a surrender.

  3. to cause to suffer for lack of something needed or craved.
  4. Chiefly British Dialect. to cause to perish, or to suffer extremely, from cold.

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. informal.
    intr to be very hungry
  4. foll byof 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. trfoll byinto to bring (to) a specified condition by starving

    to starve someone into submission

  6. archaic.
    to be or cause to be extremely cold
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


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Derived Forms

  • ˈstarver, noun
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Other Words From

  • half-starved adjective
  • half-starving adjective
  • self-starved adjective
  • un·starved adjective
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Word History and Origins

Origin of starve1

First recorded before 1000; Middle English sterven, Old English steorfan “to die”; cognate with German sterben
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Word History and Origins

Origin of starve1

Old English steorfan to die; related to Old Frisian sterva to die, Old High German sterban to die
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Synonym Study

See hungry.
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Example Sentences

Ms Thomas-Greenfield said the Biden administration had made clear to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel must address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza immediately and that the US “rejects any Israeli efforts to starve Palestinians in Jabalia, or anywhere else”.

From BBC

“The main thing is just not to starve to death,” one video blogger advised in a post detailing how she subsisted on snack samples and free meals from temples and student canteens.

It is unacceptable for the U.S. to sit back and watch as children in the region starve and pregnant women struggle to find prenatal care because of our weapons.

Because of this, "Grapes of Wrath" readers don’t witness the slow terror of the natural disaster as it affected people in their homes in Oklahoma and Colorado and surrounding states, and how it left them little choice but to flee or starve.

From Salon

Retired Maj Gen Giora Eiland recently told the BBC that civilians should be evacuated from northern Gaza, with the remaining Hamas fighters left with a choice to "surrender or starve".

From BBC

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starvation wagesstarveling