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starve
[ stahrv ]
verb (used without object)
- to die or perish from lack of food or nourishment.
- to be in the process of perishing or suffering severely from hunger.
- to suffer from extreme poverty and need.
- to feel a strong need or desire:
The child was starving for affection.
- Chiefly British Dialect. to perish or suffer extremely from cold.
- Obsolete. to die.
verb (used with object)
- to cause to starve; kill, weaken, or reduce by lack of food.
- to subdue, or force to some condition or action, by hunger:
to starve a besieged garrison into a surrender.
- to cause to suffer for lack of something needed or craved.
- Chiefly British Dialect. to cause to perish, or to suffer extremely, from cold.
starve
/ stɑːv /
verb
- to die or cause to die from lack of food
- to deprive (a person or animal) or (of a person, etc) to be deprived of food
- informal.intr to be very hungry
- foll byof or for to deprive or be deprived (of something necessary), esp so as to cause suffering or malfunctioning
the engine was starved of fuel
- trfoll byinto to bring (to) a specified condition by starving
to starve someone into submission
- archaic.to be or cause to be extremely cold
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Derived Forms
- ˈstarver, noun
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Other Words From
- half-starved adjective
- half-starving adjective
- self-starved adjective
- un·starved adjective
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Word History and Origins
Origin of starve1
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Word History and Origins
Origin of starve1
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Synonym Study
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Example Sentences
Is it worse to let your family starve or profit off the carnage?
Still, the man did starve himself in the name of a same-sex marriage ban and it, unsurprisingly, earned him a lot of backlash.
This can explain why people who starve themselves can only lose minimal amounts of weight.
He had wanted me to go into insurance, sure I would starve as an artist.
In our surreal rebirth, it makes sense that as newsrooms starve elsewhere, New Orleans has a newspaper war.
If we set him adrift the poor child would starve—unless the cat got him.
Not so much, either; 'cause a chicken will stir round an' scratch a livin' out the ground, sooner 'n starve.
I have seen examples of such being freed, that is, turned out of doors to starve.
Here, as in the former instance, the last syllables rhyme correctly, and the objection is confined to starve and deserve.
They would starve on the skin of the Scotch men and are too well-mannered to attack that of the Scotch ladies.
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