FAMISH

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does famish mean? 

• FAMISH (verb)
  The verb FAMISH has 3 senses:

1. be hungry; go without food

2. deprive of food

3. die of food deprivation

  Familiarity information: FAMISH used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FAMISH (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they famish    ... he / she / it famishes   
Past simple: famished   
Past participle: famished   
-ing form: famishing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Be hungry; go without food

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

Synonyms:

famish; hunger; starve

Context example:

Let's eat--I'm starving!

Hypernyms (to "famish" is one way to...):

hurt; suffer (feel pain or be in pain)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Sense 2

Meaning:

Deprive of food

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

Synonyms:

famish; starve

Context example:

They starved the prisoners

Hypernyms (to "famish" is one way to...):

deprive (keep from having, keeping, or obtaining)

Cause:

famish; hunger; starve (be hungry; go without food)

Verb group:

starve (deprive of a necessity and cause suffering)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Sense 3

Meaning:

Die of food deprivation

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

Synonyms:

famish; starve

Context example:

Many famished in the countryside during the drought

Hypernyms (to "famish" is one way to...):

buy the farm; cash in one's chips; choke; conk; croak; decease; die; drop dead; exit; expire; give-up the ghost; go; kick the bucket; pass; pass away; perish; pop off; snuff it (pass from physical life and lose all bodily attributes and functions necessary to sustain life)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s

 Context examples 

Having then reached my normal state, I discovered that I was half famished with hunger; so making a hasty toilet, I went into the other room.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

I was famished, but Maud tried vainly to get me to eat.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

He was famished for a sight of the girl whose slender hands had gripped his life with a giant's grasp.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

On the instant a score of the famished brutes were scrambling for the bread and bacon.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Is she ill, or only famished?

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

There was the huge famished brute, its black muzzle buried in Rucastle’s throat, while he writhed and screamed upon the ground.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

This young wolf had attained his full size; and, considering the weak and famished condition of the pack, he possessed more than the average vigour and spirit.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Footsore and famished, he had killed a rabbit under their very noses and under their very windows, and then crawled away and slept by the spring at the foot of the blackberry bushes.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

I answered in a few words, but in the most submissive manner, lifting up my left hand, and both my eyes to the sun, as calling him for a witness; and being almost famished with hunger, having not eaten a morsel for some hours before I left the ship, I found the demands of nature so strong upon me, that I could not forbear showing my impatience (perhaps against the strict rules of decency) by putting my finger frequently to my mouth, to signify that I wanted food.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

"I'm as unselfish as a famished hog."

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)