Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Starve?

\Starve\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Starved}; 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. In hot coals he hath himself raked . . . Thus starved this worthy mighty Hercules. --Chaucer. 2. To perish with hunger; to suffer extreme hunger or want; to be very indigent. Sometimes virtue starves, while vice is fed. --Pope. 3. To perish or die with cold. --Spenser. Have I seen the naked starve for cold? --Sandys. Starving with cold as well as hunger. --W. Irving. Note: In this sense, still common in England, but rarely used of the United States.
\Starve\, v. t. 1. To destroy with cold. [Eng.] From beds of raging fire, to starve in ice Their soft ethereal warmth. --Milton. 2. To kill with hunger; as, maliciously to starve a man is, in law, murder. 3. To distress or subdue by famine; as, to starvea garrison into a surrender. Attalus endeavored to starve Italy by stopping their convoy of provisions from Africa. --Arbuthnot. 4. To destroy by want of any kind; as, to starve plans by depriving them of proper light and air. 5. To deprive of force or vigor; to disable. The pens of historians, writing thereof, seemed starved for matter in an age so fruitful of memorable actions. --Fuller. The powers of their minds are starved by disuse. --Locke.