v. Forms: 5–6 famyssh, (5 -ysch, 6 -esh, -eszsh, -ishe, -issh, -ysh), 6– famish. [alteration of FAME v.2, after vbs. in -ISH. Cf. AFFAMISH.]
1. trans. To reduce to the extremities of famine and hunger; to starve. Also, † To famish away.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 1496. Þare suld my folk for defaute be famyscht for euire.
1489. Caxton, Faytes of A., II. iii. 96. The other cartagiens that kepte the said townes and castelles were famysshed.
1493. Festivall (W. de W., 1515), 100. Tytus laye so sore to the cyte that he famysshed theym.
1535. Coverdale, Joel i. 20. The shepe are fameszshed awaye.
1593. Shaks., 2 Hen. VI., I. iii. 175.
| Last time, I danc’d attendance on his will, | |
| Till Paris was besieg’d, famisht, and lost. |
1656. B. Harris, trans. Parival’s The History of This Iron Age, 91. Spinola before Breda … seeing no means to take it by force, resolved to famish it.
1790. Burke, Fr. Rev., Wks. V. 250. Brought to punishment along with the regicides whom he [Henry IV.] hanged after he had famished Paris into a surrender.
1871. R. Ellis, Catullus, xxi. 2.
| Lean Aurelius, all that are, that have been, | |
| That shall ever in after years be famish’d. |
fig. 1546. A supplication of the Poore Commons (E.E.T.S.), 64. They would famysh the soules of the residue.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett. (1892) II. 379. Some Females are of that odd humor, that to feed their Pride, they will famish Affection.
c. 1766. Burke, Tracts Popery Laws, Wks. 1842, II. 445. These enjoyments are never the pleasures of labour and free industry, whose quality it is to famish the present hours, and squander all upon prospect and futurity; they are, on the contrary, those of a thoughtless, loitering, and dissipated life.
1817. Shelley, Pr. Athanase, I. 38.
| Those false opinions which the harsh rich use | |
| To blind the world they famish for their pride. |
2. To kill with hunger, starve to death. Also, To famish to death.
c. 1440. Le Bone Florence of Rome, 875.
| So longe logyd the sege there, | |
| That they wythynne nere famysched were. |
a. 1533. Ld. Berners, Huon, l. 169. He was nere famyshyd for lake of sustenaunce.
a. 1649. Drumm. of Hawth., Hist. Jas. I., Wks. (1711), 5. To exasperate new Injuries by old Rancours, his Father Robert, spurred by Ambition, had famished to Death the King’s Brother David, in the Castle of Falkland; to escape whose Tyranny, the King, yet a Child, was committed to the Protection of stranger Princes.
1720. De Foe, Capt. Singleton, vii. 130. We were in a most dreadful apprehension of being famished to death.
1797. Mrs. Radcliffe, Italian, vii. Paulo bewailed the probability of their being famished.
† b. To deprive (a person) of anything necessary to life. Obs. rare.
1667. Milton, P. L., XII. 76.
| Where thin Aire | |
| Above the Clouds will pine his entrails gross, | |
| And famish him of Breath, if not of Bread? |
3. intr. a. To suffer the extremity of want of food; to be intensely hungry. Const. for.
1535. Coverdale, Isa. ix. 20. Yf a man do turne him to the right honde he shal famesh.
1607. Shaks., Cor., I. i. 5. 1 Cit. You are all resolu’d rather to dy then to famish?
1680. Baxter, Answ. Stillingfl., lxxiii. 93. They … reproach them as covetous that will rather beg than sin or famish.
1813. Shelley, Q. Mab, III. 104.
| Not one wretch, | |
| Whose children famish, and whose nuptial bed | |
| In earth’s unpitying bosom, rears an arm | |
| To dash him from his throne! |
1826. Disraeli, Viv. Grey, VI. i. One of the most hungry mortals that ever yet famished.
fig. 1844. Browning, Colombe’s Birthday, I., Poems, 1887, II. 183.
| Sir Clugnet, | |
| You famish for promotion. |
† b. To die of starvation, perish from want of food. Also, To famish with hunger. To famish a dog’s death. Obs.
1530. Palsgr., 545/1. I famysshe for honger, je affame.
1551. Crowley, Pleas. & Pain, 260. If the pore famyshed for lacke of fode.
1607. Shaks., Timon, II. ii. 91. Page. Thou was’t whelpt a Dogge, and thou shalt famish a Dogges death.
1670. Milton, Hist. Eng., V. (1851), 217. A small Iland where many of them famish’d.
1683. Dryden, Art. Poetry, iv. 186. Now none famish who deserve to eat.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., I. 118. They had all miserably famished with hunger, or were massacred by the Indians.
Hence † Famisher, one who famishes (sense 1); Famishing vbl. sb., Famishing ppl. a.
1553. Bale, Gardiner’s De vera Obed., B j. This hathe ben a famysher of the Kinges souldiours.
c. 1489. Caxton, Sonnes of Aymon, i. 21. It was imprenable but only by famyshynge.
1786. Burke, W. Hastings, Wks. 1842, II. 126. Sundry documents concerning the famishing, and other treatment, of the women and children of the late sovereign.
1836. W. Irving, Astoria, I. i. 22. The constitutions of many of them became impaired by the hardships of the wilderness, and their stomachs injured by occasional famishing, and especially by the want of bread and salt.
1577. trans. Bullinger’s Decades (1592), 174/2. Darius … shutteth vp Daniels enemies in the same denne, to bee torne in peeces by the famishing beastes.
1836. W. Irving, Astoria, II. xvii. 154. Here the poor famishing wanderers had expected to find buffalo in abundance, and had fed their hungry hopes during their scrambling toil, with the thoughts of roasted ribs, juicy humps, and broiled marrow bones.
