Starve (?), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Starved (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Starving.] [OE. sterven to die, AS. steorfan; akin to D. sterven, G. sterben, OHG. sterban, Icel. starf labor, toil.]
1.
To die; to perish.
[Obs., except in the sense of perishing with cold or hunger.]
Lydgate.
In hot coals he hath himself raked . . .
Thus starved this worthy mighty Hercules.
Chaucer.
2.
To perish with hunger; to suffer extreme hunger or want; to be very indigent.
Sometimes virtue starves, while vice is fed.
Pope.
3.
To perish or die with cold.
Spenser.
Have I seen the naked starve for cold?
Sandys.
Starving with cold as well as hunger.
W. Irving.
⇒ In this sense, still common in England, but rarely used of the United States.
© Webster 1913.
Starve, v. t.
1.
To destroy with cold.
[Eng.]
From beds of raging fire, to starve in ice
Their soft ethereal warmth.
Milton.
2.
To kill with hunger; as, maliciously to starve a man is, in law, murder.
3.
To distress or subdue by famine; as, to starvea garrison into a surrender.
Attalus endeavored to starve Italy by stopping their convoy of provisions from Africa.
Arbuthnot.
4.
To destroy by want of any kind; as, to starve plans by depriving them of proper light and air.
5.
To deprive of force or vigor; to disable.
The pens of historians, writing thereof, seemed starved for matter in an age so fruitful of memorable actions.
Fuller.
The powers of their minds are starved by disuse.
Locke.
© Webster 1913.