STARVING

starved, starving

(adjective) suffering from lack of food

starvation, starving

(noun) the act of depriving of food or subjecting to famine; “the besiegers used starvation to induce surrender”; “they were charged with the starvation of children in their care”

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Verb

starving

present participle of starve

Noun

starving (plural starvings)

starvation

Source: Wiktionary


STARVE

Starve, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Starved; p. pr. & vb. n. Starving.] Etym: [OE. sterven to die, AS. steorfan; akin to D. sterven, G. sterben, OHG. sterban, Icel. starf labor, toil.]

1. To die; to perish. [Obs., except in the sense of perishing with cold or hunger.] Lydgate. In hot coals he hath himself raked . . . Thus starved this worthy mighty Hercules. Chaucer.

2. To perish with hunger; to suffer extreme hunger or want; to be very indigent. Sometimes virtue starves, while vice is fed. Pope.

3. To perish or die with cold. Spenser. Have I seen the naked starve for cold Sandys. Starving with cold as well as hunger. W. Irving.

Note: In this sense, still common in England, but rarely used of the United States.

Starve, v. t.

1. To destroy with cold. [Eng.] From beds of raging fire, to starve in ice Their soft ethereal warmth. Milton.

2. To kill with hunger; as, maliciously to starve a man is, in law, murder.

3. To distress or subdue by famine; as, to starvea garrison into a surrender. Attalus endeavored to starve Italy by stopping their convoy of provisions from Africa. Arbuthnot.

4. To destroy by want of any kind; as, to starve plans by depriving them of proper light and air.

5. To deprive of force or vigor; to disable. The pens of historians, writing thereof, seemed starved for matter in an age so fruitful of memorable actions. Fuller. The powers of their minds are starved by disuse. Locke.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



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Word of the Day

9 June 2025

HERMAPHRODITE

(noun) one having both male and female sexual characteristics and organs; at birth an unambiguous assignment of male or female cannot be made


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Coffee Trivia

Espresso is both a coffee beverage and a brewing method that originated in Italy. When making an espresso, a small amount of nearly boiling water under pressure forces through finely-ground coffee beans. It has more caffeine per unit volume than most coffee beverages. Its smaller serving size will take three shots to equal a mug of standard brewed coffee.

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