%starv%

n. The act of starving, or the state of being starved. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ This word was first used, according to Horace Walpole, by Henry Dundas, the first Lord Melville, in a speech on American affairs in 1775, which obtained for him the nickname of Starvation Dundas.
“Starvation, we are also told, belongs to the class of 'vile compounds' from being a mongrel; as if English were not full of mongrels, and as if it would not be in distressing straits without them.” Fitzed. Hall. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. [ imp. & p. p. Starved p. pr. & vb. n. Starving. ] [ OE. sterven to die, AS. steorfan; akin to D. sterven, G. sterben, OHG. sterban, Icel. starf labor, toil. ] 1. To die; to perish. [ Obs., except in the sense of perishing with cold or hunger. ] Lydgate. [ 1913 Webster ]

In hot coals he hath himself raked . . .
Thus starved this worthy mighty Hercules. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To perish with hunger; to suffer extreme hunger or want; to be very indigent. [ 1913 Webster ]

Sometimes virtue starves, while vice is fed. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To perish or die with cold. Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

Have I seen the naked starve for cold? Sandys. [ 1913 Webster ]

Starving with cold as well as hunger. W. Irving. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ In this sense, still common in England, but rarely used in the United States. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. 1. To destroy with cold. [ Eng. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

From beds of raging fire, to starve in ice
Their soft ethereal warmth. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To kill with hunger; as, maliciously to starve a man is, in law, murder. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To distress or subdue by famine; as, to starve a garrison into a surrender. [ 1913 Webster ]

Attalus endeavored to starve Italy by stopping their convoy of provisions from Africa. Arbuthnot. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To destroy by want of any kind; as, to starve plants by depriving them of proper light and air. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. To deprive of force or vigor; to disable. [ 1913 Webster ]

The pens of historians, writing thereof, seemed starved for matter in an age so fruitful of memorable actions. Fuller. [ 1913 Webster ]

The powers of their minds are starved by disuse. Locke. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. In the condition of one starved or starving; parsimoniously. [ 1913 Webster ]

Some boasting housekeeper which keepth open doors for one day, . . . and lives starvedly all the year after. Bp. Hall. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Starve + -ling. ] One who, or that which, pines from lack of food, or nutriment. [ 1913 Webster ]

Old Sir John hangs with me, and thou knowest he is no starveling. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Hungry; lean; pining with want. [ 1913 Webster ]