starve
Part of speech: verb
Morphological type: simple
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”).
Inflected forms:
form: starves
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: starving
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: starved
pos: verb
tags: past
form: starved
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: starven
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
participle
past
form: no-table-tags
pos: verb
tags: table-tags
form: glossary
pos: verb
tags: inflection-template
form: starve
pos: verb
tags: infinitive
form: starve
pos: verb
tags: first-person
present
singular
form: starved
pos: verb
tags: first-person
past
singular
form: starve
pos: verb
tags: present
second-person
singular
form: starvest
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
second-person
singular
form: starved
pos: verb
tags: past
second-person
singular
form: starvedst
pos: verb
tags: archaic
past
second-person
singular
form: starves
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: starveth
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
singular
third-person
form: starved
pos: verb
tags: past
singular
third-person
form: starve
pos: verb
tags: plural
present
form: starved
pos: verb
tags: past
plural
form: starve
pos: verb
tags: present
subjunctive
form: starved
pos: verb
tags: past
subjunctive
form: starve
pos: verb
tags: imperative
present
form: -
pos: verb
tags: imperative
past
form: starving
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: starved
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: starven
pos: verb
tags: archaic
participle
past
form: sterve
pos: verb
tags: alternative
Senses:
gloss: To die because of lack of food or of not eating.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: During the Cultural Revolution I was exiled to Xincai County in Henan Province. There, 36 percent of the people starved to death in the early 1960s.
"When all of you starve to death, Shasta, don't come crying to me, that's all."
gloss: To suffer severely because of lack of food or of not eating.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: Ah (ſaid the Ape as ſighing vvondrous ſad) / Its an hard caſe, vvhen men of good deſeruing / Muſt either driuen be perforce to ſteruing, / Or asked for their pas by euerie ſquib: […]
..., and the little half-starved, stunted girl of twelve, with her brown arms and steady, unerring aim, will hammer out half a bundle, IS. 6½d.
gloss: To be very hungry.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: I was starving so I wrote S.O.S. on the desert island using rocks.
gloss: To kill or attempt to kill by depriving of food.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To make suffer severely by depriving of food.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To force a combatant to submit or surrender by depriving of food, as in a targeted siege.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: If they refuse to surrender the garrison, we'll just starve them out.
gloss: To force a population center to submit or surrender by depriving of food, as in sieges in international armed conflicts.
pos: verb
tags: dated
transitive
examples: Some historians have since classified the Siege of Leningrad as a genocide due to the intentional destruction of the city and the systematic starvation of its civilian population.
gloss: To deprive of nourishment or of some vital component.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: The uncaring parents starved the child of love.
The patient’s brain was starved of oxygen.
Mildly it [the wind] kiſt our ſailes, and, freſh, and ſvveet, / As, to a ſtomack ſterv'd, vvhoſe inſides meete, / Meate comes, it came; and ſvvole our ſailes, vvhen vvee / So joyd, as Sara' her ſvvelling joy'd to ſee.
Let them not ſtill be obſtinately blind, / Still to divert the Good thou haſt deſign'd, / Or vvith Malignant penury, / To ſterve the Royal Vertues of his Mind.
gloss: To deteriorate for want of any essential thing.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
gloss: To kill with cold; to (cause to) die from cold.
pos: verb
tags: UK
transitive
examples: I was half starved waiting out in that wind.
Wheniver he wor starved, he used to get th' seck o' coils ov his back, an' walk raand th' haase till he gat warm agean.
One i' th' morning an' me starv'd to th' death wi' waitin' up.
Sometimes he remarks, “ ’Tis these dreadful frostis that spiles everything. ’Tis enough to sterve anybody.”
gloss: To die; in later use especially to die slowly, waste away.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
obsolete
examples: Seuen moneths he ſo her kept in bitter ſmart, / Becauſe his ſinfull luſt ſhe would not ſerue, / Vntill ſuch time as noble Britomart / Releaſed her, that elſe was like to ſterue / Through cruell knife that her deare heart did kerue.
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:
lang: Arabic
word: مَاتَ جَوْعًا
roman: māta jawʕan
lang: Asturian
word: esfamiar
lang: Belarusian
word: галада́ць
roman: haladácʹ
lang: Bulgarian
word: гладувам
roman: gladuvam
lang: Catalan
word: morir de gana
lang: Chinese Mandarin
word: 餓死 /饿死
roman: èsǐ
lang: Czech
word: hladovět
lang: Dutch
word: verhongeren
lang: Dutch
word: sterven van de honger
lang: Faroese
word: svølta
lang: Finnish
word: nääntyä (nälkään)
lang: Finnish
word: nääntyä
lang: Finnish
word: kuolla nälkään
lang: French
word: mourir de faim
lang: Galician
word: esfamear
lang: Galician
word: alangrear
lang: German
word: verhungern
lang: German
word: Hungers sterben
lang: Greek
word: λιμοκτονώ
roman: limoktonó
lang: Hebrew
word: גָּוַע
roman: gavá'
lang: Hungarian
word: éhenhal
lang: Indonesian
word: mati kelaparan
lang: Italian
word: morire di fame
lang: Japanese
word: 餓死する
roman: gashi suru
lang: Japanese
word: 飢える
roman: ueru
lang: Khün
word: ᩋᩧ᩠ᨷ
lang: Korean
word: 굶어죽다
roman: gulmeojukda
lang: Polish
word: głodować
lang: Portuguese
word: morrer de fome
lang: Romanian
word: flămânzi
lang: Romanian
word: suferi de foame
lang: Romanian
word: muri de foame
lang: Russian
word: голода́ть
roman: golodátʹ
lang: Russian
word: умира́ть от го́лода
roman: umirátʹ ot góloda
lang: Russian
word: умира́ть с го́лоду
roman: umirátʹ s gólodu
lang: Russian
word: умира́ть с го́лода
roman: umirátʹ s góloda
lang: Slovak
word: hladovať
lang: Slovene
word: stradati
lang: Spanish
word: morir de hambre
lang: Swedish
word: svälta
lang: Tagalog
word: gutumin
lang: Telugu
word: ఆకలిచావు
roman: ākalicāvu
lang: Turkish
word: açlıktan ölmek
lang: Ukrainian
word: голодува́ти
roman: holoduváty
lang: Vietnamese
word: chết đói