a. One who causes starvation. b. One who suffers starvation. c. Something that kills or numbs with cold.
a. 1709. Shaftesb., Moralists, II. iv. iv. 118. The Brain certainly is a great Starver, where it abounds. Ibid., 119. What shall we say of our … Dancers, Tennis-players, and such like? ’Tis the Body surely is the Starver here: and if the Brain were such a terrible Devourer in the other way [etc.].
1859. Mill, Liberty, iii. 100. An opinion that corn-dealers are starvers of the poor … may justly incur punishment when delivered orally to an excited mob.
1870. Pall Mall Gaz., 5 Dec., 2/2. Should the Germans be hemmed in and their communications cut, the starver may become the starved.
b. 1839. Hood, Fugitive Lines on Pawning Watch, vii. So long I have wander’d a starver, I’m getting as keen as a hawk.
1897. Blackmore, Dariel, xlvii. The unfortunate starver … tore the cake from Cator.
c. 1844. Hood, Forge, I. viii. Flapping his arms to keep him warm, For the breeze from the North is a regular starver.
