STARVATION

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does starvation mean? 

• STARVATION (noun)
  The noun STARVATION has 2 senses:

1. a state of extreme hunger resulting from lack of essential nutrients over a prolonged period

2. the act of depriving of food or subjecting to famine

  Familiarity information: STARVATION used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• STARVATION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A state of extreme hunger resulting from lack of essential nutrients over a prolonged period

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

famishment; starvation

Hypernyms ("starvation" is a kind of...):

hunger; hungriness (a physiological need for food; the consequence of food deprivation)

Derivation:

starve (be hungry; go without food)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The act of depriving of food or subjecting to famine

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

starvation; starving

Context example:

they were charged with the starvation of children in their care

Hypernyms ("starvation" is a kind of...):

deprivation; privation (act of depriving someone of food or money or rights)

Derivation:

starve (deprive of food)

 Context examples 

Oxygen starvation is a common problem in studies involving transplanted pancreatic cells.

(Researchers Develop Insulin-Producing Cells Activated by Light for Diabetes, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Gluconeogenesis Induction involves initiation of the biosynthesis of glucose from 3-carbon non-carbohydrate precursors, including amino acids (from protein breakdown during starvation).

(Gluconeogenesis Induction, NCI Thesaurus)

But the dogs! The terrible hardship, the heart-breaking toil, the starvation, the frost! Oh, I've read about it and I know.

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

In some cases, the deaths are a result of carbon starvation, in which trees close their pores, essentially starving themselves by blocking the entry of carbon, which is needed for photosynthesis.

(What's killing trees during droughts?, National Science Foundation)

He remembered the days of his desperate starvation when no one invited him to dinner.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The peasants were shut up in their hovels, and only a few of the most hardy ventured forth to seize the animals whom starvation had forced from their hiding-places to seek for prey.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

By no possible process of cruelty, starvation, or disease could this worn-out wreck be the still beautiful Lady Frances.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

There was nothing left for me but death by starvation or death by the hands of the mutineers.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

They were all too soft, dying under the toil, the frost, and starvation.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Strait-jackets, starvation, and beatings and clubbings were the wrong treatment for Jim Hall; but it was the treatment he received.

(White Fang, by Jack London)