starve

Meaning

To die because of lack of food or of not eating.
To be very hungry.
To kill or attempt to kill by depriving of food.
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.
(obsolete) To die; in later use especially to die slowly, waste away.

famish

hungry

die of hunger

be hungry

be starving

be famished

abstain

become hungry

go without food

half-starved

run dry

suffer want

thirst for

desire

deprive … of

be short of food

desiccate

tighten

go on a hunger strike

suffer privation

be cold

deprive of

Frequency

Pronounced as (IPA)

/stɑːv/

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- (“stiff”); 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”).