English Explanatory Dictionary

starve

English dictionary entry

Meanings

verb
  1. To die because of lack of food or of not eating.
  2. To suffer severely because of lack of food or of not eating.
  3. To be very hungry.
  4. To kill or attempt to kill by depriving of food.
  5. To make suffer severely by depriving of food.
  6. To force a combatant to submit or surrender by depriving of food, as in a targeted siege.
  7. To force a population center to submit or surrender by depriving of food, as in sieges in international armed conflicts.
  8. To deprive of nourishment or of some vital component.
  9. To deteriorate for want of any essential thing.
  10. To kill with cold; to (cause to) die from cold.
  11. To die; in later use especially to die slowly, waste away.

Pronunciation

/stɑːv/ /stɑɹv/ en-us-starve.ogg

Word forms

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

Etymology

From Middle English sterven (“to die, perish”), from Old English steorfan (“to die, perish”), from Proto-West Germanic *sterban, from Proto-Germanic *sterbaną (“to become stiff, die”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)terp- (“to lose strength, become numb, be motionless”); or from Proto-Indo-European *sterbʰ- (“to become stiff”), from *ster- (“stiff”); or a conflation of the aforementioned. Cognate with Scots stairve, sterve (“to die, perish, starve”), Saterland Frisian stjerwa (“to die”), West Frisian stjerre (“to die”), Dutch sterven (“to die”), German Low German starven (“to die”), German sterben (“to die”), Icelandic stirfinn (“peevish, froward”), Albanian shterp (“sterile, unproductive, barren land”).

Synonyms

famish

Derived words

bitstarve cash-starved feed a cold, starve a fever ha'penny starver hunger-starve nonstarved nonstarving overstarve penny starver prestarved semistarved sex-starved starvation starve-acre starved starvedly starve-gutted starveling starve out starver starve the bardies starve the beast starve the crows starve the lizards starving starving artist starvingly unstarved while the grass grows, the steed starves

Translations

Arabic: مَاتَ جَوْعًا Asturian: esfamiar Belarusian: галада́ць Bulgarian: гладувам Catalan: morir de gana Chinese Mandarin: 餓死 /饿死 Czech: hladovět Dutch: verhongeren Dutch: sterven van de honger Faroese: svølta Finnish: nääntyä (nälkään) Finnish: nääntyä Finnish: kuolla nälkään French: mourir de faim Galician: esfamear Galician: alangrear German: verhungern German: Hungers sterben Hebrew: גָּוַע Hungarian: éhenhal Indonesian: mati kelaparan Italian: morire di fame Japanese: 餓死する Japanese: 飢える Khün: ᩋᩧ᩠ᨷ Korean: 굶어죽다 Polish: głodować Portuguese: morrer de fome Romanian: flămânzi Romanian: suferi de foame Romanian: muri de foame Russian: голода́ть Russian: умира́ть от го́лода Russian: умира́ть с го́лоду Russian: умира́ть с го́лода Slovak: hladovať Slovene: stradati Spanish: morir de hambre Swedish: svälta Tagalog: gutumin Telugu: ఆకలిచావు Turkish: açlıktan ölmek Ukrainian: голодува́ти Vietnamese: chết đói
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