starve

Meaning

Verb

  • To die; in later use especially to die slowly, waste away.
  • To die because of lack of food or of not eating.
  • To be very hungry.
  • To destroy, make capitulate or at least make suffer by deprivation, notably of food.
  • To deprive of nourishment or of some vital component.
  • To deteriorate for want of any essential thing.
  • To kill with cold; to (cause to) die from cold.

Origin

  • From Middle English sterven, from Old English steorfan ("to die"), 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-; or a conflation of the aforementioned. Cognate with Scots sterve ("to die, perish"), 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").

Modern English dictionary

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