famish Meaning, Definition & Usage

verb be hungry; go without food
starve; hunger.
- Let's eat--I'm starving!
verb deprive of food
starve.
- They starved the prisoners
verb die of food deprivation
starve.
- The political prisoners starved to death
- Many famished in the countryside during the drought

OE. famen; cf. OF. afamer, L. fames. See Famine, and cf. Affamish.

imperfect & past participle Famished ; present participle & verbal noun Famishing

To starve, kill, or destroy with hunger. Shak.
To exhaust the strength or endurance of, by hunger; to distress with hanger.
And when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread. Cen. xli. 55.

The pains of famished Tantalus he'll feel. Dryden.
To kill, or to cause to suffer extremity, by deprivation or denial of anything necessary.
And famish him of breath, if not of bread. Milton.
To force or constrain by famine.
He had famished Paris into a surrender. Burke.

To die of hunger; to starve.
To suffer extreme hunger or thirst, so as to be exhausted in strength, or to come near to perish.
You are all resolved rather to die than to famish? Shak.
To suffer extremity from deprivation of anything essential or necessary.
The Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish. Prov. x. 3.