STARVE • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Starve

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/stɑrv/ Listen

verb

Starve v. t.

1.

To destroy with cold. (Eng.) "From beds of raging fire, to starve in ice Their soft ethereal warmth."

2.

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

3.

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

4.

To destroy by want of any kind; as, to starve plants 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." "The powers of their minds are starved by disuse."

Starve v. i. (past & past part. starved; pres. part. starving)

1.

To die; to perish. (Obs., except in the sense of perishing with cold or hunger.) "In hot coals he hath himself raked... Thus starved this worthy mighty Hercules."

2.

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

3.

To perish or die with cold. "Have I seen the naked starve for cold?" "Starving with cold as well as hunger." Note: In this sense, still common in England, but rarely used in the United States.

See images of 'Starve'

Etymology of 'Starve'

Click any word on the page to get its definition

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Text size: A A

Share |

"Starve" Quotes from Famous Books

... lie nor starve nor fight, Nor yet the poor deny; But in their hearts all is not right,— They often sit and sigh. We need thee every day and hour, In sunshine and in snow: Child-king, we pray with all our power— Be born, and save ...

— The Poetical Works of George MacDonald in Two Volumes, Volume I • George MacDonald

Read full book for free!

... feels that sex is perilous, and he is right. But the person who feels that the sexual impulse is bad, or even low and vulgar, is an absurdity in the universe, an anomaly. He is like those persons in our insane asylums, who feel that the instinct of nutrition is evil and so proceed to starve themselves. They are alike spiritual outcasts in the universe whose children they are. It is another matter when a man declares that, personally, in his own case, he cherishes an ascetic ideal which leads him to ...

— Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 6 (of 6) • Havelock Ellis

Read full book for free!

... picked up some sticks and chips. They attempted to unlock the door; but the lock was broken. "Anybody can go in!" remarked the head of the party. "But I don't know that we can even build a fire, and as to provisions, I s'pose we'll have to starve this night." ...

— Old Caravan Days • Mary Hartwell Catherwood

Read full book for free!

... because the extrinsic moisture entering the pores makes the meat within more succulent and of a more nourishing nature, so that the heat and fury of the hunger declines and abates; and therefore a great many of those who have a mind to starve themselves to death live a long time only by drinking water; that is, as long as the siccity does not quite consume whatever may be united ...

— Essays and Miscellanies - The Complete Works Volume 3 • Plutarch

Read full book for free!

... evinces that his eccentricities are involuntary. He is useful to me. I can get along with him. If I turn him away, the chances are he will fall in with some less indulgent employer, and then he will be rudely treated, and perhaps driven forth miserably to starve. Yes. Here I can cheaply purchase a delicious self-approval. To befriend Bartleby; to humor him in his strange willfulness, will cost me little or nothing, while I lay up in my soul what will eventually prove ...

— Bartleby, The Scrivener - A Story of Wall-Street • Herman Melville

Read full book for free!

Copyright © 2025 Diccionario ingles.com