starve

[ stahrv ]

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.

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

Derived Forms

• ˈstarver, noun

Other Word Forms

• half-starved adjective
• half-starving adjective
• self-starved adjective
• un·starved adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of starve¹

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

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

Synonym Study

See hungry.

Example Sentences

“A famine of beauty, honey. My eyes are starving for beauty!”

From Salon

Brown Pelicans across Southern California are filling up wildlife rehabilitation centers, either sick or starving — a dual crisis that wildlife experts believe could be linked to a massive toxic algae bloom.

From Los Angeles Times

Charities say 30 million people in Sudan are in desperate need, and people are starving as a result of the war.

From BBC

If the furnaces were starved of fuel and went out, the UK would no longer have the capability to produce so-called virgin steel, due to the process of restarting them being extremely difficult and costly.

From BBC

Congress also bears a lot of responsibility for how public health has been starved, Love said.

From Salon

Related Words

• cease
• forgo
• pass up
• quit
• refrain
• renounce
• shun
• withhold