starve
Pronunciation Verb

starve (starves, present participle starving; past starved, past participle starved)

  1. (intransitive, obsolete) To die; in later use especially to die slowly, waste away.
    • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.i.4:
      noble Britomart / Released her, that else was like to starve, / Through cruell knife that her deare heart did kerue.
  2. (intransitive) To die because of lack of food or of not eating.
  3. (intransitive) To be very hungry.
    Hey, ma, I'm starving! What's for dinner?
  4. (transitive) To destroy, make capitulate or at least make suffer by deprivation, notably of food.
  5. (transitive) 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.
  6. (intransitive) To deteriorate for want of any essential thing.
  7. (transitive, British, especially Yorkshire and Lancashire) To kill with cold.
    I was half starved waiting out in that wind.
Translations
  • Russian: ча́хнуть
Translations
  • French: mourir de faim
  • German: verhungern, Hungers sterben
  • Italian: morire di fame
  • Portuguese: morrer de fome
  • Russian: голода́ть
  • Spanish: morir de hambre
Translations Translations


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