Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

Topic: ILLNESS AND DISABILITY

Language: Old English
Origin: steorfan 'to die'

starve

 verb
     
starve S3
1 [intransitive] to suffer or die because you do not have enough to eat:
Thousands of people will starve if food doesn't reach the city.
pictures of starving children
They'll either die from the cold or starve to death (=die from lack of food).
2 [transitive] to prevent someone from having enough food to live:
The poor dog looked like it had been starved.
3

be starving

also be starved American English to be very hungry:
You must be starving!

starve somebody/something of something

phrasal verb
to not give something that is needed:
The schools are starved of funding.
The poor kid's just starved for attention.

starve somebody ↔ out

phrasal verb
to force someone to leave a place by preventing them from getting food:
If we can't blast them out, we'll starve them out!
Definition of starve from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English within
the topic ILLNESS AND DISABILITY
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