Starve

/stɑːv/ · verb

Meaning

(intransitive) To die because of lack of food or of not eating..

Definitions by Sense

1. (intransitive) To die because of lack of food or of not eating.
2. (intransitive) To suffer severely because of lack of food or of not eating.
3. (intransitive) To be very hungry.
4. (transitive) To kill or attempt to kill by depriving of food.
5. (transitive) To make suffer severely by depriving of food.
6. (transitive) To force a combatant to submit or surrender by depriving of food, as in a targeted siege.
7. (transitive, dated) To force a population center to submit or surrender by depriving of food, as in sieges in international armed conflicts.
8. (transitive) To deprive of nourishment or of some vital component.

Example Sentences

During the Cultural Revolution I was exiled to Xincai County in Henan Province. There, 36 percent of the people starved to death in the early 1960s.

"When all of you starve to death, Shasta, don't come crying to me, that's all."

Ah (ſaid the Ape as ſighing vvondrous ſad) / Its an hard caſe, vvhen men of good deſeruing / Muſt either driuen be perforce to ſteruing, / Or asked for their pas by euerie ſquib: […]

..., and the little half-starved, stunted girl of twelve, with her brown arms and steady, unerring aim, will hammer out half a bundle, IS. 6½d.

I was starving so I wrote S.O.S. on the desert island using rocks.

If they refuse to surrender the garrison, we'll just starve them out.

Some historians have since classified the Siege of Leningrad as a genocide due to the intentional destruction of the city and the systematic starvation of its civilian population.

The uncaring parents starved the child of love.

Synonyms for starve

Antonyms for starve

Related Words

Word Forms

• starves
• starving
• starved
• starven
• no-table-tags
• glossary
• starve
• starvest
• starvedst
• starveth
• -
• sterve

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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