From the second edition (1989):
starve, v.
(stɑːv) pa. tense and pa. pple. starved. Forms: 1 steorfan, 2 stærfan, 2, 4–5 sterven, 3 sterfen, 3–4 steorve, 3–4, 6 storve, 4–7 sterve, 5 Sc. sterwe, 6 sterf, (sterff), Sc. sterv, 6– starve. pa. tense 1 stearf, 2 sturfe, sturve, 3–5 starf, 4–5 starfe, 3–5 sterf, (5 sterfe); 5 stervet, stervid (? error sterevid), 6 stervit, starvit, 7 sterved, 6– starved. pa. pple. 1 storfen, 3–4 istorve, 4 ystorve, 3 isterve, 3–6 storven, 4, 6 storve, 5 storvyn, (storvun); 6–7 sterved, 6– starved. [A Com. WGer. str. verb, which has become weak in mod.Eng.: OE. steorfan (pa. tense stearf, pl. sturfon, pa. pple. storfen) corresponds to OFris. sterva (WFris. stjerre, NFris. sterwe), OS. sterƀan, (M)LG., (M)Du. sterven, OHG. sterban (MHG., mod.G. sterben), to die, f. Teut. root *sterƀ- (:—starƀ- :—sturƀ-).
A root of identical form, and possibly of identical origin, occurs in ON. stiarfe wk. masc., ? epilepsy, stiarf-r, stir-finn obstinate, starf toil, effort, starfa to toil. It has been suggested that the primitive sense of the root may have been ‘to be rigid’ , which might account both for the sense ‘to die’ of the WGer. verb and for the meanings of the ON. words. On the other hand, as the Teut. form may equally well represent pre-Teut. *sterp- and *sterbh-, it is possible that the WGer. and the ON. words may be unconnected.
The conjugation of the verb has remained strong in the continental Teut. langs. In English the strong forms of the pa. tense became obsolete in the 15th century, and those of the pa. pple. in the 16th c. The transitive (causative) use, which arose in English in the 16th c., is not paralleled in the other langs.]
A root of identical form, and possibly of identical origin, occurs in ON. stiarfe wk. masc., ? epilepsy, stiarf-r, stir-finn obstinate, starf toil, effort, starfa to toil. It has been suggested that the primitive sense of the root may have been ‘to be rigid’ , which might account both for the sense ‘to die’ of the WGer. verb and for the meanings of the ON. words. On the other hand, as the Teut. form may equally well represent pre-Teut. *sterp- and *sterbh-, it is possible that the WGer. and the ON. words may be unconnected.
The conjugation of the verb has remained strong in the continental Teut. langs. In English the strong forms of the pa. tense became obsolete in the 15th century, and those of the pa. pple. in the 16th c. The transitive (causative) use, which arose in English in the 16th c., is not paralleled in the other langs.]
I. Intransitive uses.
1. To die. Said of a person or animal. In late use app. to die a lingering death, as from hunger, cold, grief, or slow disease. Also, in spiritual sense, of the soul. Obs.
c1000 Ælfric Hom. I. 398 Annanias and Saphiran‥mid færlicum deaðe ætforan ðam apostolum steorfende afeollon. c1175 Lamb. Hom. 71 Þole us to bi-wepen ure sunne Þet we ne steruen noht þer inne. a1225 Ancr. R. 222 He‥pineð so hire licome þet to soule steorueð. c1250 Gen. & Ex. 1893 Starf ysaac quan he was hold .ix. score ȝer and fiue told. c1290 St. Clement 146 in S. Eng. Leg. 327 He wende þat huy a-dronke weren oþur i-storue bi þe weie. c1374 Chaucer Troylus v. 1844 [Christ] Vpon a cros oure soules for to beye First starf, and ros, and sit yn heuene a-boue. c1450 Mirk's Festial 104 Þys Perys sterfe yn hys bede. a1542 Wyatt in Tottel's Misc. (Arb.) 78 What so befall, tyll that I sterue By proofe full well it shall be knowne. 1578 Narsetus 90 in T. Proctor Gorg. Gallery Biiij, A thousand deathes I do desire, in wretched state to starue. 1590 Spenser F.Q. ii. vi. 34 These armes,‥the which doe men in bale to sterue. a1657 Sir W. Mure Sonn. to Margaret ii. Wks. (S.T.S.) I. 48 Margrait‥Quho with thy eyes, (least my puir lyfe sould sterue), Wouchaiffes to look wt pitty on my paine.
2. With various constructions, specifying the cause of death. In later use with modified sense: To be brought gradually nearer to death, to be in process of being killed; to suffer extremely. Now only dial. †a. const. for, of, with (grief, love, pestilence, and the like). Obs.
c1330 Arth. & Merl. 692 Anon he starf for diol, ywis. c1385 Chaucer L.G.W. 1277 There as he was in paril for to sterue For hungyr & for myschif in the se. c1386 —— Knt.'s T. 1156 A thousand slayn, and nat oon of qualm ystorue. 1513 Douglas Æneis iv. Prol. 51 For luff thow stervist maist dowchtie Achill. 1584 D. Powel Lloyd's Cambria 109 Meredyth‥whome Blethyn pursued so straightlie, that he starued for cold and hunger vpon the mountaines.
†b. const. of, with (hunger), for (hunger, food, meat). Obs. (Cf. sense 4; also hunger-starve v.)
1124 O.E. Chron. (Laud MS.), Se man þe æni god heafde him me hit be ræfode‥þe nan ne heafde stærf of hungor. 1154 Ibid. (Laud MS.) an. 1137. c1175 Cott. Hom. 233 Þa were cofe abruden into þesternesse þe hi sturfe hungre. 1528 Roy Rede Me (Arb.) 86 Playnly for honger they shulde sterve, Excepte they wolde to laboure fall. a1618 Sylvester Hymn of Alms 185 To stark for Cold, to starve for Food, to perish In Penury. 1650 Lamont Diary (Maitland Club) 24 A collectione‥for supplying the prisoners in England‥that were sterueing for famine. 1707 Prior Sat. Poets 153 Starving for Meat, not surfeiting on Praise. 1735 Arbuthnot Aliments ii. §8. 48 An Animal that starves of Hunger, dies feverish and delirious.
c. const. †for, †of, with (cold).
c1380 Wyclif Wks. (1880) I. 14 Here children steruen for cold. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 140 All bathed in rayne & frosen with yce, & nere storuen for colde. a1604 Hanmer Chron. Irel. (1809) 393 We starve for cold, wanting our winter garments. a1619 M. Fotherby Atheom. i. xi. §4 (1622) 117 Friget Venus. Poore Venus staru's with cold, & soone will dye. 1737 Pope Sat. Donne ii. 72 His Office keeps your Parchment fates entire, He starves with cold to save them from the fire. 1756 M. Calderwood in Coltness Collect. (Maitl. Club) 151 In summer she is like to starve of cold, and in winter like to die with heat. 1867 P. Kennedy Banks of Boro xiv. 70 [He'll] be obleeged to bring the shakedown near the fire‥to keep her from starving with the cold.
†3. Of plants or their parts: To die, wither. Of a material substance: To lose its characteristic quality, spoil, deteriorate. Obs.
1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. xiii. 179 Bote yf þe sed þat sowen is in þe sloh sterue [L. mortuum fuerit], Shal neuere spir springen vp. a1400–50 Bk. Curtasye 766 in Babees Bk. 203 Þe potage fyrst with brede y-coruyn, [the sewer] Couerys hom agayn lest þey ben storuyn. 1466 in Willis & Clark Cambridge (1886) III. 93 This tymbir shalbe white oke, not doted, nor storvyn, nor sappy. 1578 Lyte Dodoens iv. lxii. 525 [Our Ladyes Thistell] flowreth in June and July,‥and when it hath brought foorth his seede, it decayeth and starueth. 1607 J. Carpenter Plaine Mans Plough 220 The trees which grow not sterue, or are very neare to steruing. 1669 A. Browne Ars Pictoria 90 When your silver either with long keeping or moistness of the Air becomes starved and rusty; you must‥before you lay the silver Cover over the place with a little Juice of Garlick, which will preserve it. 1695 Woodward Nat. Hist. Earth vi. (1723) 288 Had the seeds of the pepper-plant been borne from Java to these northern countries, they must all have starved for want of Sun. a1722 Lisle Husb. (1757) 148 In our hill-country‥the straw breaks or starves three or four weeks before harvest.
4. a. [Orig. ellipt. = 2b.] To die of hunger; to perish or be in process of perishing from lack or insufficiency of food; to suffer extreme poverty and want; more emphatically to starve to death. Also hyperbolically in colloquial use: To be extremely hungry.
[1124–1735 to starve for, of, with hunger: see 2b.] 1578 Whetstone 2nd Pt. Promos & Cass. i. vii, Better the purce then body starue of twayne. 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, i. iii. 89 No: on the barren Mountaine let him sterue. 1604 Breton Passionate Sheph. (Grosart) 8/2 That thou wilt no foode reserue, But my flockes and I shall sterue. 1647 E. Porter in Nicholas Papers (Camden) I. 70 Were it not for an Irish Barber that was once my servaunt I might have sterved for want of bredd. 1655 I. S. Brief Jrnl. W. Ind. 24 Which in common reason may seem strange that (of all men) Souldiers should starve in a Cooks shop (as the saying is). 1734 Pope Ess. Man iv. 149 But sometimes Virtue starves, while Vice is fed. 1775 Ann. Reg., Hist. Europe *88/1 It was said, that they [the Americans] had no alternative but to starve or to rebel. 1784 Cowper Tiroc. 402 Let rev'rend churls his ignorance rebuke, Who starve upon a dog's-ear'd Pentateuch. 1820 W. Irving Sketch Bk. I. 63 [He] would rather starve on a penny than work for a pound. 1842 Tennyson Godiva 20 If they pay this tax, they starve. 1885 ‘Mrs. Alexander’ At Bay i, Pot luck, my dear fellow, but you shan't starve. 1910 A. Hilliers Master Girl i. 24 The man was starving to death. Water he did not want.
Proverb. a1536 Proverbs in Songs, Carols etc. (1907) 128 While the grasse grwith, the hors sterwith.
b. transf. Of an animal or plant: To die or lose vitality for lack of proper nutriment.
a1680 Butler Rem. (1759) II. 23 Thorns and Thistles flourish on barren Grounds, where nobler Plants would starve. 1866 Huxley Physiol. vi. §7. 142 An animal‥begins to starve from the moment its vital food-stuffs consist of pure amyloids or fats.
c. fig.
1590 Shakes. Com. Err. ii. i. 88 His company must do his minions grace, Whil'st I at home starue for a merrie looke. 1616 R. C. Times Whistle i. 398 Though our soules doe sterve For want of Knowledge, we doe litle care. 1872 Kingsley Lett. (1878) II. 388 The scheme might starve without such more liberal assistance at first. 1884 Browning Ferishtah (1885) 7 Which lacks food the more, Body or soul in me? I starve in soul.
5. a. [Orig. ellipt. = 2c.] To die of exposure to cold; chiefly used hyperbolically, to suffer extreme cold, to be benumbed or ‘dead’ with cold. Now only north.
[1380–1604 to starve for cold, 1756 to starve of cold, 1619–1867 to starve with cold: see 2c.] 1602 Rowlands Greenes Ghost (1872) 27 So out of doores go they with his clothes‥and left Nicholas Nouice staruing and quaking in that doghole. 1710 Swift Jrnl. to Stella 30 Dec., The weather grows cold.‥ I'll go rise, for my hands are starving while I write in bed. 1731 Pope Ep. Boyle 38 Imitating-Fools‥Shall call the winds thro' long arcades to roar,‥And, if they starve, they starve by rules of art. 1772 J. W. Fletcher Appeal iii. Wks. 1826 I. 77 Whether they starve in the snows of Lapland, or burn in the sands of Guinea?
†b. quasi-trans. to starve out: to endure in perishing cold. Obs.
1606 Shakes. Tr. & Cr. v. x. 2 Stand hoe, yet are we maisters of the field, Neuer goe home; here starue we out the night.
II. Transitive uses.
†6. a. To cause to die, to kill, destroy. Const. by, for, with. Obs.
a1529 Skelton Duke of Albany 251 The fynde of hell mot sterue the! c1550 R. Bieston Bayte Fortune Bijb, Both Emperour and Kyng at last by death he sterueth. 1560 J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 434 He‥also sterued them for honger and cold, so that many died. 1629 Maxwell tr. Herodian (1635) 398 That the Souldiers might perish for lacke of water, and be starved with thirst. 1690 C. Nesse Hist. & Myst. O. & N.T. I. 341 There to starve him with cold as well as with hunger. 1707 [E. Ward] Hud. Rediv. vi. 27 Thus almost starv'd with Wind and Weather, I left 'em marching all together.
†b. To cause (a plant, bodily limb or organ) to wither or perish. Obs. Cf. 8.
1580 [see starved ppl. a. 1]. 1591 Shakes. Two Gent. iv. iv. 159 But since she‥threw her Sun-expelling Masque away, The ayre hath staru'd the roses in her cheekes. 1607 —— Timon i. i. 257 Aches contract, and sterue your supple ioynts.
7. a. To cause to perish of hunger; to deprive of or keep scantily supplied with food; †also with up; †more definitely to starve for hunger or meat; more emphatically to starve to death.
1530 Palsgr. 734/1, I starve one for honger, je affame. 1544 Betham Precepts War ii. lxxxiv. Miij, For yf they be sterued for hungre, vnpossible it is that they shoulde do anye thynge vyliauntly. 1552 Huloet, Storue wyth hunger, victum alicui subducere. 1570 Levins Manip. 83/9 To sterue, actiue, cibum subducere. 1573 Tusser Husb. (1878) 89 Who abuseth his cattle and sterues them for meat. 1583 T. Stocker Civ. Warres Lowe C. iii. 130b, The young children which were staruen to death, said,‥Where is the bread, where is the wine. 1596 Shakes. Tam. Shr. iv. iii. 9 But I‥Am staru'd for meate, giddie for lacke of sleepe. 1635 R. Johnson Hist. Tom a Lincolne (1828) 106 Wherein was left but onely the Red Rose Knight, in his Palmer's weed (for all the rest were starved up for want of food). a1641 Bp. R. Montagu Acts & Mon. (1642) 462, I‥had rather perish by, and with that Thracian sport you speak of then here in this Countrey to bee starved up with your religious fasts. 1684 Burnet tr. More's Utopia 140 Such as are wrought on by these Perswasions, do either starve themselves of their own accord [L. inedia sponte vitam finiunt], or they take Opium. 1718 Prior Alma iii. 257 To starve a man, in law is murther. 1775 Ann. Reg., Hist. Europe *88/1 The object of consideration was not, whether the Americans were to be starved or not; but [etc.]. 1784 Cowper Task iv. 463 Oh for a law to noose the villain's neck Who starves his own. 1861 F. Nightingale Notes on Nursing 46 Thousands of patients are annually starved in the midst of plenty.
b. To subdue by famine or low diet; also with down, out; to force into (a course of action) by starvation.
a1625 Fletcher Womans Prize i. iv, We will beleagure 'em, and either starve 'em out, or make 'em recreant. 1705 Arbuthnot Coins (1727) 278 There was one Attalus, who endeavoured to starve Italy by stopping their Convoy of Provisions from Africa. 1775 Marq. Rockingham Sp. Ho. Lords 16 Mar., in Hansard 431 They‥were to be starved into compliance. 1839 Dickens Nich. Nick. viii, Every young and healthy feeling flogged and starved down.
c. To cure (a disease) by abstemious diet; also with out.
1617 Moryson Itin. iii. 159 They‥give themselves to the keeping of Irish women, who starve the ague, giving the sick man no meate. 1700 Dryden Fables, Theodore & Hon. 37 As men by fasting starve the untamed disease. 1737 [see starving vbl. n. 2]. 1784 Cowper Tiroc. 768 Disease‥Prevented much by diet neat and plain; Or, if it enter, soon starv'd out again. 1839 J. W. Croker in C. Papers 21 Nov. (1884) I. xxi. 358 Last week he [Wellington] had been what he called starving a cold. 1885 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 26 Sept. 611/1 Feeding and Starving in the treatment of disease.
d. transf. and fig.
1581 G. Pettie tr. Guazzo's Civ. Conv. (1586) i. 3b, In steede of consuming and staruing your euil, you giue it nourishment. 1588 Shakes. L.L.L. ii. i. 11 When she did starue the generall world beside, And prodigally gaue them [sc. graces] all to you. 1590 —— Mids. N. i. i. 222 We must starue our sight, From louers foode, till morrow deepe mid~night. 1599 Drayton Sonet xxxiv. Minor P. (1907) 38 Marvaile not Loue‥That I am onely staru'd in my desire. 1603 —— To his coy Love i. Ibid. 78 These poore halfe Kisses kill me quite; Was euer man thus serued? Amidst an Ocean of Delight, For Pleasure to be sterued. 1628 Gaule Pract. Theories Panegyr. (1629) 403 Neither should his absence starue them, nor his presence cloy them. 1675 Baxter Cath. Theol. ii. xiii. 292 And so you starve out and destroy true piety, by calling off the peoples minds to Controversie. 1704 M. Henry Communic. Comp. Wks. 1855 I. 309 The soul that is starved is as certainly murdered as the soul that is stabbed. 1810 S. Perceval in S. Walpole Life & Corr. (1874) II. iv. 133 If you thought they were starving the great cause [Peninsular War] by any mistaken economy. 1878 D. Kemp Yacht & Boat Sailing 371 Starved of Wind—when a vessel is sailed so near the wind that she does not have enough of it, or feel the weight of it.
e. Phr. starve the crows and varr. = stone the crows s.v. crow n.1 3d. Austral. slang.
1918 H. Matthews Saints & Soldiers 116 ‘Starve the crows,’ howled Bluey in that agonised screech of his. 1936 A. Russell Gone Nomad vi. 46 Starve the crows! I laugh ev'ry time I think of it. 1966 G. W. Turner Eng. Lang. Austral. & N.Z. vi. 118 The well-known stone the crows‥occurs in such forms as starve the wombats‥starve the ninnies and several more. 1966 ‘J. Hackston’ Father clears Out 156 Trooper Newbigun turned his horse's head and rode off with such dignity that Albert Horne said, just like an Australian, ‘Gawd starve the crows!’ 1968 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 18 Nov. 10/7 Though the Dad and Dave expression ‘Starve the lizards’ is well enough known it has taken the spring of 1968 to bring about a similar but far from fanciful phrase for the flying foxes.
8. To produce atrophy in (a plant, an animal or vegetable organ, a morbid growth) by withholding nutriment. Also fig. with immaterial object. So to starve out, to destroy by absorbing all the available nutriment.
1633 Bp. Hall Occas. Medit. xi. 26, I do not love to see an Infancy over-hopeful; in these pregnant beginnings, one facultie starves another, and, at last, leaves the minde saplesse, and barren. a1682 Sir T. Browne Misc. Tracts i. (1683) 76 This, in the Pathology of Plants, may be the Disease of‥superfoliation‥whereby the fructifying Juice is starved by the excess of Leaves. 1709 Shaftesbury Moralists ii. iv. 118 The Anatomy of the Creature shews it‥to be, as it were, all Wing‥: these Parts of theirs being made in such superiour proportion, as in a manner to starve their Companions. 1766 H. Walpole Let. to Mann 9 Sept., Our harvest‥turns out ill, the preceding rains having starved it with weeds. 1781 Cowper Retirem. 44 Invet'rate habits‥Their fibres‥draining its nutritious pow'rs to feed Their noxious growth, starve ev'ry better seed. 1855 Bain Senses & Int. iii. ii. §11. (1864) 474 The whole soul, passing into one sense, aggrandizes that sense and starves the rest. 1866 Livingstone Jrnl. (1873) I. i. 19 Where bamboos prevail they have starved out the woody trees. 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VIII. 780 To endeavour to starve the growth by coagulating the blood-vessels at the base.
9. a. To cause to die of cold, to kill with cold; also hyperbolically, to benumb with cold; more emphatically to starve to death. Chiefly pass. Obs. exc. dial.
1600 Holland Livy xxi. lviii. 427 Many a man and beast, and seven Elephants‥were starved and perished [owing to the intolerable cold]. 1636 Cowley Sylva 486 No flower or herbe is neere it found, But a perpetuall winter sterves the ground. a1639 Carew Poems, To Saxham 11 The cold and frozen ayr had sterv'd Much poore, if not by thee preserv'd. 1662 J. Davies tr. Olearius' Voy. Ambass. 37 Their cloaths being all wet about them, most of them would have been starv'd to death in the snow. 1667 Milton P.L. ii. 600 Thither‥the damn'd Are brought:‥From Beds of raging Fire to starve in Ice Thir soft Ethereal warmth. a1676 Hale Prim. Orig. Man. ii. ix. (1677) 208 The Winter cold, which starves very many, either for want of heat or food. 1697 C'tess D'Aunoy's Trav. (1706) 57 What occasion was there‥to put me into such an open place to starve me? 1770 Lady M. Coke Jrnl. 12 Jan. (1892) III. 203 There is not a window or door that shuts; I am starved to death at my fire side. 1891 Leeds Mercury 14 Dec. 5/6 A man starved to death at Farsley. 1893 J. K. Snowden Tales Yorksh. Wolds 158 Willie was rubbing his hands slowly before the roaring fire. ‘I'm fearful starved’, he said.
b. (See quot. 1886.)
1766 Museum Rust. VI. 84 Considerable parts of each land, towards each furrow, are starved by the coldness of the water dripping from the higher parts of the lands. 1886 Chesh. Gloss. s.v., Land is also said to be starved when it is cold for want of drainage.
10. Comb.: starve-acre n. (see quot. 1886); a., that produces poor crops; †starve-crow, †starve-yoad dial. [yaud, horse] formerly used as field-names; †starve-gutted a., famished.
1672 Eachard Hobbes' St. Nat. Consid. 112 Because Jonas Moore is not as yet come to divide, and set out the ground, and to call this piece starve-crow, and t'other long acre. 1726 Diss. Dumpling 22 The Enemies of good Eating, the Starve-gutted Authors of Grub-street. 1755 in N. & Q. 7th Ser. (1886) II. 408/1 Monkhouse has been at Newton, to have t'other view of Starve-yoad. 1886 Britten & Holland Plant-n., Starveacre. Ranunculus arvensis, L. 1891 Hardy Tess xlii, 'Tis a starve-acre place. Corn and swedes are all they grow.