Sentence:  I had forced into his hand the means to carry on decently the serious business of life, to get food, drink, and shelter of the customary kind while his wounded spirit, like a bird with a broken wing, might hop and flutter into some hole, to die quietly of <WSD>inanition</WSD> there. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  A spiritual emptiness or lack of purpose or will to live, akin to the Existentialist Philosophy state of "nausea".