Pa. t. 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. t. 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. t. 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, stirfinn 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. t. 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.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Hom., I. 398. Annanias and Saphiran … mid færlicum deaðe ætforan ðam apostolum steorfende afeollon.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 71. Þole us to bi-wepen ure sunne Þet we ne steruen noht þer inne.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 222. He … pineð so hire licome þet te soule steorueð.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 1893. Starf ysaac quan he was hold .ix. score ȝer and fiue told.
c. 1290. St. Clement, 146, in S. Eng. Leg., 327. He wende þat huy a-dronke weren oþur i-storue bi þe weie.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, V. 1844. [Christ] Vpon a cros oure soules for to beye First starf, and ros, and sit yn heuene a-boue.
c. 1450. Mirk’s Festial, 104. Þys Perys sterfe yn hys bede.
a. 1542. 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, B iiij. 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.
a. 1657. 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.
c. 1330. Arth. & Merl., 692. Anon he starf for diol, ywis.
c. 1385. Chaucer, L. G. W., 1277. There as he was in paril for to sterue For hungyr & for myschif in the se. Ibid. (c. 1386), Knt.’s T., 1156. A thousand slayn, and nat oon of qualm ystorue.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, IV. Prol. 51. For luft thow stervist maist dowchtie Achill.
1584. 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 hearde stærf of hungor. Ibid. (1154), (Laud MS.), an. 1137.
c. 1175. 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.
a. 1618. 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).
c. 1380. 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.
a. 1604. Hanmer, Chron. Irel. (1809), 393. We starve for cold, wanting our winter garments.
a. 1619. 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. Mrs. 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.
a. 1400–50. 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.
a. 1722. Lisle, Husb. (1757), 148. In our hill-country … the straw breaks or starves three or four weeks before harvest.
4. [Orig. ellipt. = 2 b.] 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 2 b.]
1578. Whetstone, 2nd Pt. Promos & Cass., I. vii. Better the purce then body starue of twayne.
1596. Shaks., 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 for, a trickle oozed near him.
Proverb. a. 1536. 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.
a. 1680. 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. Shaks., 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. [Orig. ellipt. = 2 c.] 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 2 c.]
1602. Rowlands, Greenes Ghost (1872), 27. So out of doores go they with his clothes … and left Nicholas Nouice staruing and quaking in that dog-hole.
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. Shaks., 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. To cause to die, to kill, destroy. Const. by, for, with. Obs.
a. 1529. Skelton, Duke of Albany, 251. The fynde of hell mot sterue the!
c. 1550. R. Bieston, Bayte Fortune, B ij b. Both Emperour and Kyng at last by death he sterueth.
1560. Daus, trans. Sleidane’s Comm., 434. He … also sterued them for honger and cold, so that many died.
1629. Maxwell, trans. Herodian (1635), 398. That the Souldiers might perish for lacke of water, and be starved with thirst.
1690. C. Nesse, Hist. & Myst. O. & N. Test., I. 341. There to starve him with cold as well as with hunger.
1707. [E. Ward], Hudibras 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. Shaks., Two Gent., IV. iv. 159. But since she … threw her Sun-expelling Masque away, The ayre hath staru’d the roses in her cheekes. Ibid. (1607), Timon, I. i. 257. Aches contract, and sterue your supple ioynts.
1. 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. M iij. 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. Stocker, Civ. Warres Lowe C., III. 130 b. The young children which were staruen to death, said,… Where is the bread, where is the wine.
1596. Shaks., 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).
a. 1641. Bp. Mountagu, 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, trans. More’s Utopia, 140. Such as are wrought on by these Perswasions, do either starve themselves of their own accord [L. media 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. Flor. 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.
a. 1625. 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 March, 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. sb. 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, trans. Guazzo’s Civ. Conv. (1586), I. 3 b. In steede of consuming and staruing your euil, you giue it nourishment.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., II. I. 11. When she did starue the generall world beside, and prodigally gaue them [sc. graces] all to you. Ibid. (1590), Mids. N., I. i. 222. We must starue our sight, From louers foode, till morrow deepe midnight.
1599. Drayton, Sonet, xxxiv. Minor P. (1907), 38. Marvaile not Loue … That I am onely staru’d in my desire. Ibid. (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.
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.
a. 1682. 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. Shaftesb., Moralists, II. iv. 117–8. 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, Lett. to Mann, 9 Sept. Our harvest … turns out ill, the preceding rains having starved it with weeds.
1781. Cowper, Retirement, 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. 730. To endeavour to starve the growth by coagulating the blood-vessels at the base.
9. 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.
a. 1639. Carew, Poems, To Saxham, 11. The cold and frozen ayr had sterv’d Much poore, if not by thee preserv’d.
1662. J. Davies, trans. 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.
a. 1676. 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 Mary 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 sb. (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. Arbuthnot, Diss. Dumpling, Why do therefore the Enemies of good Eating, the Starve-gutted Authors of Grub-street, employ their impotent Pens against Pudding and Pudding-headed, alias Honest Men?
1755. in N. & Q., 7th Ser. (1886), II. 408/1. Monkhouse has been at Newton, io have t’other view of Starve-yoad.
1886. Britten & Holland, Plant-n., Starveacre. Ranunculus arvensis, L.
1891. T. Hardy, Tess, xlii. ’Tis a starve-acre place. Corn and swedes are all they grow.
