famish

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search

English

[edit]

Etymology

[edit]

From Middle English famisshe, from famen (starve), from Old French afamer, ultimately from Latin famēs (hunger). Compare affamish, famine. Cognate with Spanish hambre (hunger).

Pronunciation

[edit]

Verb

[edit]

famish (third-person singular simple present famishes, present participle famishing, simple past and past participle famished)

  1. (obsolete, transitive) To starve (to death); to kill or destroy with hunger.
  2. (transitive) To exhaust the strength or endurance of, by hunger; to cause to be very hungry.
  3. (transitive) To kill, or to cause great suffering to, by depriving or denying anything necessary.
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book XII”, in Paradise Lost. [], London: [] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker []; [a]nd by Robert Boulter []; [a]nd Matthias Walker, [], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: [], London: Basil Montagu Pickering [], 1873, →OCLC:
      And famish him of breath, if not of bread?
  4. (transitive) To force, control, or constrain by famine.
  5. (intransitive) To die of hunger; to starve to death.
  6. (intransitive) To suffer extreme hunger or thirst, so as to be exhausted in strength, or to nearly perish.
  7. (intransitive) To suffer extremity from deprivation of anything essential or necessary.

Derived terms

[edit]

Translations

[edit]

References

[edit]