[f. STARVE v. + -ING1.] The action of STARVE v.
† 1. Dying, death. Obs.
a. 1300. E. E. Psalter cvi. 20. He sent his worde, and heled þam, And fra þar steruinges he þam nam.
1340. Ayenb., 73. Voryet þi body ones a day, guo in-to helle ine þine libbinde: þet þou ne guo ine þine steruinge. Ibid., 165. Ase zaiþ þe sauter ydelnesse be steruinge.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 475/1. Stervynge, or deyynge, mors, expiracio.
2. The condition of suffering privation of food.
1549. Cheke, Hurt Sedit. (1641), 34. The pore … who in a common scarcitie, lyueth most scarcely, and feeleth quickliest the sharpenesse of staruing.
1737. Pope, Sat. Donne, ii. 10. I grant that Poetry’s a crying sin … Catch’d like the Plague,… the Lord knows how, But that the cure is starving, all allow.
1820. Shelley, Œdipus, II. ii. 6. We call thee Famine! Goddess of fasts and feasts, starving and cramming.
1842. F. Trollope, Vis. Italy, II. ix. 163. Our starvings, &c. did not begin … till after we had quitted the beaten track.
allusively. 1844. W. Pennefather, in Life & Lett. (1879), 171. I have been offered a pretty little living…. Its value is £92 per annum … my father will call it a starving.
1861. J. Pycroft, Ways & Words, 274. It is not a living a man can earn there; it is a starving.
b. attrib.
1843. S. C. Hall, Ireland, III. 354. Particular periods of the year which may be rightly termed ‘starving seasons.’
1905. Pearson’s Mag., July, 104/2. Frail women and children, who have to work long hours at a starving wage.
3. The action of depriving of food.
1665. Manley, Grotius’s Low-C. Wars, 233. [He] was sent with part of the Army to see if he could reduce it, either by force or starving.
1883. Congregat. Yr. Bk., 73. The starving of the body has a relation to the starving of the mind.
† 4. The stripping of the branches (of trees). Obs.
1585. Higins, Junius’ Nomencl., 144/2. Articulatio,… the staruing of trees as when by the force of tempestes the young shootes of vines are beaten off, or hurt through vnskilfulnes, or naughtilye lopped.
