STARVE

To die; to perish. [Obs., except in the sense of perishing with cold or hunger.] Lydgate. In hot coals he hath himself raked . . . Thus starved this worthy mighty Hercules. Chaucer.

To perish with hunger; to suffer extreme hunger or want; to be very indigent. Sometimes virtue starves, while vice is fed. Pope.

To perish or die with cold. Spenser. Have I seen the naked starve for cold Sandys. Starving with cold as well as hunger. W. Irving.

To destroy with cold. [Eng.] From beds of raging fire, to starve in ice Their soft ethereal warmth. Milton.

To kill with hunger; as, maliciously to starve a man is, in law, murder.

To distress or subdue by famine; as, to starvea garrison into a surrender. Attalus endeavored to starve Italy by stopping their convoy of provisions from Africa. Arbuthnot.

To destroy by want of any kind; as, to starve plans by depriving them of proper light and air.

To deprive of force or vigor; to disable. The pens of historians, writing thereof, seemed starved for matter in an age so fruitful of memorable actions. Fuller. The powers of their minds are starved by disuse. Locke.