Obs. [f. prec. sb.]
1. trans. To distress with famine; to kill or subdue with hunger; to starve.
1520. Caxton’s Chron. Eng., VI. 69 b/2. He was put in the castell Aungell, and was famyned to dethe.
1523. Ld. Berners, Froiss., I. ccccviii. 711. The flemynges thought by this siege to famyne them within.
2. intr. To suffer, or die of, hunger; to starve.
1553. Eden, Treat. Newe Ind. (Arb.), 31. For wante of vitayles and foode, they begonne to famyne: imputinge the fault hereof vnto the Christian men, which had digged vp al the rootes wherwith thei were accustomed to make theyr bread.
1596. Bell, Surv. Popery, III. x. 412. Saint Exuperius the bishoppe of Tolose imitating the widow of Sarepta, feedeth others euen when himselfe is hungrie: his own mouth is pale with fasting, & yet it grieueth him to behold others famine: al his substance he bestoweth on Christs members.
Hence † Famined ppl. a. Obs. rare.
1622. H. Sydenham, Serm. Sol. Occ. (1637), 178. Rather … than sacrifice the remainder of a famin’d body to an honourable death.
