Starve \Starve\, v. t.
1. To destroy with cold. [Eng.]
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From beds of raging fire, to starve in ice
Their soft ethereal warmth. --Milton.
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2. To kill with hunger; as, maliciously to starve a man is,
in law, murder.
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3. To distress or subdue by famine; as, to starve a garrison
into a surrender.
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Attalus endeavored to starve Italy by stopping their
convoy of provisions from Africa. --Arbuthnot.
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4. To destroy by want of any kind; as, to starve plants by
depriving them of proper light and air.
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5. To deprive of force or vigor; to disable.
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The pens of historians, writing thereof, seemed
starved for matter in an age so fruitful of
memorable actions. --Fuller.
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The powers of their minds are starved by disuse.
--Locke.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Starve \Starve\ (st[aum]rv), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Starved
(st[aum]rvd); 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.
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In hot coals he hath himself raked . . .
Thus starved this worthy mighty Hercules. --Chaucer.
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2. To perish with hunger; to suffer extreme hunger or want;
to be very indigent.
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Sometimes virtue starves, while vice is fed. --Pope.
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3. To perish or die with cold. --Spenser.
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Have I seen the naked starve for cold? --Sandys.
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Starving with cold as well as hunger. --W. Irving.
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Note: In this sense, still common in England, but rarely used
in the United States.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
starve
v 1: be hungry; go without food; "Let's eat--I'm starving!" [syn:
hunger, famish] [ant: be full]
2: die of food deprivation; "The political prisoners starved to
death"; "Many famished in the countryside during the
drought" [syn: famish]
3: deprive of food; "They starved the prisoners" [syn: famish]
[ant: feed]
4: have a craving, appetite, or great desire for [syn: crave,
hunger, thirst, lust]
5: deprive of a necessity and cause suffering; "he is starving
her of love"; "The engine was starved of fuel"
WordNet (r) 2.0
74 Moby Thesaurus words for "starve":
OD, annihilate, asphyxiate, be in want, be killed, be pinched,
be poor, be ravenous, begrudge, bereave of life, carry away,
carry off, chloroform, choke, cut down, cut off, deprive of life,
destroy, dispatch, dispose of, do away with, do for, do to death,
drown, end, execute, exterminate, eye hungrily, famish,
feel hungry, finish, finish off, go on welfare, grudge,
have a tapeworm, hunger, hunger for, immolate, kill, lack,
launch into eternity, liquidate, live upon nothing, lynch,
make away with, martyr, martyrize, need, pinch, pinch pennies,
poison, purge, put away, put down, put to death, put to sleep,
raven, remove from life, sacrifice, scamp, scant, screw, scrimp,
skimp, slay, smother, stint, strangle, suffocate, take life,
take off, thirst, thirst for, want
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
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