▪ I. starving, vbl. n.
(ˈstɑːvɪŋ)
[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 {pstlg}92 per annum..my father will call it a starving. 1861 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. |
▪ II. ˈstarving, ppl. a.
[f. starve v. + -ing2.]
† 1. Of death: ? Lingering, languishing. Obs.
| 1387–8 T. Usk Test. Love i. i. (Skeat) 5 Certes, her absence is to me an helle; my sterving deth thus in wo it myneth, that endeles care is throughout myne herte clenched. |
† 2. Causing death, killing. Obs.
| a 1605 Montgomerie Misc. Poems xlv. 11 Come, gentill Death,..Thy sterving straik with force thou let out flie, And light on me, to end my peirles pyne. |
3. That is dying of hunger; that lacks the necessaries of life; also absol.
| 1719 De Foe Crusoe ii. (Globe) 339, I also forgot not the starving Crew..but order'd my own Boat..to carry them a Sack of Bread. 1732 Pope Ess. Man ii. 269 The starving chemist in his golden views Supremely blest. 1817 Shelley Rev. Islam x. xv, All night, the lean hyaenas their sad case Like starving infants wailed. 1886 W. J. Tucker Eastern Europe xxxi. 315 How beneficially all this luxuriance..might be applied to the cravings of the needy and starving. |
4. That causes or entails starvation or famine; also, that treats disease by stinting the patient of food.
| 1590 Sir J. Smythe Disc. Weapons 1 The tumultuarie, licentious, and staruing warres of the Low Countries. 1693 Humours Town 22 Modesty is a starving Quality, and only another Name for Folly. 1731 Gentl. Mag. I. 118 The whole income remaining to the Church is but 15, 20, or 30 l. Yearly; which is but a starving Support. 1824 Scott St. Ronan's vii, Then he is a starving doctor, Mrs. Blower—reduces diseases as soldiers do towns—by famine. 1899 Westm. Gaz. 26 June 7/3 Starving trades—that was to say, trades that were starving those who had their capital invested in them—must ultimately also starve the workpeople. |
b. That causes one to starve with cold. rare.
| 1684 Otway Prol. to N. Lee's Constantine 32 Under the starving sign of Capricorn. 1721 Amherst Terræ Fil. No. 13 (1726) I. 72 [He] found him in his lodgings by a little starving fire, with a rush light candle before him. 1897 T. H. Warren By Severn Sea 41 On sullen earth, clogged flood and starving air. |