STARVE

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does starve mean? 

• STARVE (verb)
  The verb STARVE has 5 senses:

1. be hungry; go without food

2. die of food deprivation

3. deprive of food

4. have a craving, appetite, or great desire for

5. deprive of a necessity and cause suffering

  Familiarity information: STARVE used as a verb is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• STARVE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they starve    ... he / she / it starves   
Past simple: starved   
Past participle: starved   
-ing form: starving   

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 "starve" is one way to...):

hurt; suffer (feel pain or be in pain)

Sentence frames:

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

Antonym:

be full (be sated, have enough to eat)

Derivation:

starvation (a state of extreme hunger resulting from lack of essential nutrients over a prolonged period)

Sense 2

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 "starve" 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

Sense 3

Meaning:

Deprive of food

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

Synonyms:

famish; starve

Context example:

They starved the prisoners

Hypernyms (to "starve" 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

Antonym:

feed (give food to)

Derivation:

starvation; starving (the act of depriving of food or subjecting to famine)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Have a craving, appetite, or great desire for

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

Synonyms:

crave; hunger; lust; starve; thirst

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

desire; want (feel or have a desire for; want strongly)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s PP

Sense 5

Meaning:

Deprive of a necessity and cause suffering

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

Context example:

The engine was starved of fuel

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

deprive (keep from having, keeping, or obtaining)

Verb group:

famish; starve (deprive of food)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

 Context examples 

He had starved for love all his life.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I was aware of a hungry out-reaching for her, as of a starving man for bread.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

I could not take it, if I was starving.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I told my wife, “she had been too thrifty, for I found she had starved herself and her daughter to nothing.”

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

It appears they were at their wits' end what to do, the stores being so low that we must have been starved into surrender long before help came.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Because the galaxy does not appear to be feeding on much smaller satellite galaxies, it is starved of infalling gas.

(Hubble Surveys Gigantic Galaxy, NASA)

What can we do, but lie here and starve?

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Not only were the starving wolves growing bolder, but lack of sleep was telling upon Henry.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

He must be starved, you know;—that is certain; absolutely starved.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Dear me! continued the anxious mother, what a sad fire we have got, and I dare say you are both starved with cold.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)