starve

STARVE, verb intransitive [G., to die, either by disease or hunger, or by a wound.] 1. To perish; to be destroyed. [In this general sense, obsolete.] 2. To perish or die with cold; as, to starve with cold. [This sense is retained in England, but not in the United States. 3. To perish with hunger. [This sense is retained in England and the United States.] 4. To suffer extreme hunger or want; to be very indigent. Sometimes virtue starves, while vice is fed. STARVE, verb transitive 1. To kill with hunger. Maliciously to starve a man is, in law, murder. 2. To distress or subdue by famine; as, to starve a garrison into a surrender. 3. To destroy by want; as, to starve plants by the want of nutriment. 4. To kill with cold. [Not in use in the United States.] From beds of raging fire to starve in ice their soft ethereal warmth-- 5. To deprive of force or vigor. The powers of their minds are starved by disuse. [Unusual.]