Edit page | Page history | Printable version

starve

1. To destroy with cold. 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)