starve

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starve / stärv/ • v. [intr.] 1. (of a person or animal) suffer severely or die from hunger: she left her animals to starve seven million starved to death | [as adj.] (starving) the world's starving children. ∎  [tr.] cause (a person or animal) to suffer severely or die from hunger: for a while she had considered starving herself. ∎  (be starving or starved) inf. feel very hungry: I don't know about you, but I'm starving. ∎  (starve someone out or into) force someone out of a place or into a specified state by stopping supplies of food: the Royalists were starved out after eleven days German U-boats hoping to starve Britain into submission. ∎  [tr.] (usu. be starved of or for) deprive of something necessary: the arts are being starved of funds.2. archaic be freezing cold: pull down that window for we are perfectly starving here.DERIVATIVES: star·va·tion / -ˈvāshən/ n.