starve
/stɑɹv/ verb B2- To die because of lack of food or of not eating.
- To suffer severely because of lack of food or of not eating. · I was starving, so I wrote S.O.S. on the desert island using rocks.
- To be very hungry. · Can we go to a restaurant now? I'm starving!
- To kill or attempt to kill by depriving of food.
- To make suffer severely by depriving of food.
- To force a combatant to submit or surrender by depriving of food, as in a targeted siege. · If they refuse to surrender the garrison, we'll just starve them out.
- To force a population center to submit or surrender by depriving of food, as in sieges in international armed conflicts.
- To deprive of nourishment or of some vital component. · The uncaring parents starved the child of love.· The patient’s brain was starved of oxygen.
Plural starve · He/she/it starves · Past starved · Past participle starved · -ing form starving
Verb forms
- Base form
- starve
- He/she/it
- starves
- Past
- starved
- Past participle
- starved
- -ing form
- starving
From the library
Now get hence, or by the Sambhur that I killed (I eat no starved cattle), back thou goest to thy mother, burned beast of the jungle, lamer than ever thou camest into the world!
So if I am starved or killed here, it will be all my own fault.
What a starved, unloved life she had had--a life of drudgery and poverty and neglect; for Marilla was shrewd enough to read between the lines of Anne’s history and divine the truth.
“When did you ever hear of me starving people into good behavior?” demanded Marilla indignantly.
Learn starve in real texts
With a free account, hover any word in the library for its meaning, hear it read aloud, save words for review timed to your memory, and see how much of each book you already know.