starve
Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary
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[edit] English
[edit] Etymology
From Middle English sterven, from Old English steorfan. Cognate with Dutch sterven and German sterben.
[edit] Pronunciation
[edit] Verb
to starve (third-person singular simple present starves, present participle starving, simple past starved, past participle starved or rarely starven)
- (intransitive, obsolete) To die, in general:
- But he that starf for oure redempcioun
And bond Sathan (and yet lith ther he lay) [CHAUCER Cnt, MoL. 633-634]
- But he that starf for oure redempcioun
- (intransitive) To die because of lack of food or of not eating.
- 2007, Lisa Wingate, A Thousand Voices, page 76:
- "When all of you starve to death, Shasta, don't come crying to me, that's all."
- 2007, Lisa Wingate, A Thousand Voices, page 76:
- (intransitive) To be very hungry.
- Hey, ma, I'm starving!
- (transitive) To destroy, make capitulate or at least make suffer by deprivation, notably of food
- (transitive) To deprive of nourishment.
- They starved the child until it withered away.
- (transitive, British, especially Yorkshire and Lancashire) To kill with cold.
- I was half starved waiting out in that wind.
[edit] Translations
to die because of lack of food
to be very hungry
to destroy by deprivation
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to deprive of nourishment
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