▪ I. famine, n.
(ˈfæmɪn)
Forms: 4–6 famin, famyn(e, 4– famine.
[a. F. famine = Pr. famina, f. late L. type *famīna, f. fames hunger.]
1. a. Extreme and general scarcity of food, in a town, country, etc.; an instance of this, a period of extreme and general dearth.
| 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. vii. 309 Famyn schal a-Ryse Þorw Flodes and foul weder. 1494 Fabyan Chron. vi. clxxxvi. 186 By reason wherof ensued a great famyne. 1555 Eden Decades 20 The violent famine dyd frustrate all these appoyntmentes. 1651 Hobbes Leviath. ii. xxvii. 157 If in a great famine he take the food by force. 1776 Gibbon Decl. & F. I. 285 A long and general famine was a calamity of a more serious kind. 1860 Emerson Cond. Life, Fate Wks. (Bohn) II. 315 Famine..war..and effete races, must be reckoned calculable parts of the system of the world. |
| fig. 1644 Milton Areop. (Arb.) 72 Should ye..bring a famin upon our minds. |
b. personified.
| 1610 Histrio-m. vi. 16 Thin Famine needs must follow Poverty. 1784 Cowper Task ii. 185 He calls for Famine, and the meagre fiend..taints the golden ear. |
2. transf. An extreme dearth or scarcity of something specified, material or immaterial.
| 1611 Bible Amos viii. 11, I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread..but of hearing the words of the Lord. 1634 Sir T. Herbert Trav. 184 These negroes..have no famine of Natures gifts and blessings. 1681 R. Knox 19 Years' Captivity in Arb. Garner I. 400, I..lamented under the famine of God's Word and Sacraments. 1888 L'pool Daily Post 26 June 4/8 The threatened water famine. 1889 Pall Mall G. 7 Nov. 3/3 The perennial talk of an ivory famine has as yet come to nothing. |
3. Want of food, hunger; hence, starvation.
| c 1386 Chaucer Pard. T. 123 And schold hir children sterve for famyn. c 1450 Merlin 224 The Citee..was right stronge, that nothynge ne dowted, saf only for famyn. 1586 T. B. La Primaud. Fr. Acad. 510 That ancient and usuall punishment of famine. 1605 Shakes. Macb. v. v. 40 If thou speak'st false, Vpon the next Tree shall thou hang aliue Till Famine cling thee. 1773 Observ. State Poor 8 More really die of famine than those who are found. 1837 W. Irving Capt. Bonneville III. 101 Their horses..had recovered from past famine and fatigue. |
4. Violent appetite, as of a famished person; chiefly
fig.| 1393 Gower Conf. III. 32 Of love the famine I fonde..To fede. 1600 Dekker Fortunatus Wks. 1873 I. 169 The famine of base gold Hath made your soules to murders hands be sold. 1667 Milton P.L. ii. 847 Death Grinnd horrible a gastly smile, to hear His famine should be fill'd. 1858 Middleton Shelley I. xvii. 168 He..shall never cease thirsting, but, striving ever to quench his thirst..shall only render it so much the more the famine of his nature. |
5. Comb.:
a. simple attributive, as
famine-blight,
famine-prices,
famine relief (
cf. relief2 4 a),
famine-wolf;
b. instrumental, as
famine-hollowed,
famine-pinched;
famine-bread, a species of lichen (
Umbilicaria arctica);
famine-fever, (
a) typhus; (
b) relapsing fever.
| 1845 Mrs. Norton Child of Islands (1846) 111 *Famine-blights that swept from east to west. |
| 1887 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 9) XXII. 409 The so-called ‘*famine-bread’..which has maintained the life of so many arctic travellers. |
| 1876 Ouida Winter City iii. 45 Is it not a *famine fever which never comes near a well-laden table? 1877 Roberts Handbk. Med. (ed. 3) I. 132 Relapsing fever prevails generally during periods of famine, and has hence been called famine-fever. |
| 1822 Byron Werner i. i. 119 This..*famine-hollow'd brow. |
| 1856 Kane Arct. Expl. II. xxi. 206 These *famine-pinched wanderers of the ice. |
| 1847 Builder 29 May 256/2 The *famine prices of provisions. 1856 Emerson Eng. Traits, Wealth Wks. (Bohn) II. 75 Bread rose to famine-prices. |
| 1876 Correspondence on Famine in W. & S. India i. 13 in Parl. Papers 1877 (C. 1707) LXV. 1 In my letter of 25th August last..I pointed out the necessity of starting *famine relief works. 1963 Listener 17 Jan. 108/2 Such young people seek their own expression in such positive forms of political action as work projects and famine relief. |
| 1891 Pall Mall G. 30 Sept. 7/1 Russia at present is..anxious to muzzle the *famine wolf. |
▪ II. † ˈfamine, v. Obs. [f. prec. n.] 1. trans. To distress with famine; to kill or subdue with hunger; to starve.
| 1520 Caxton's Chron. Eng. vi. 69 b/2 He was put in the castell Aungell, and was famyned to dethe. 1523 Ld. Berners Froiss. I. ccccviii. 711 The flemynges thought by this siege to famyne them within. |
2. intr. To suffer, or die of, hunger; to starve.
| 1553 Eden Treat. Newe Ind. (Arb.) 31 For wante of vitayles and foode, they begonne to famyne. 1596 Bell Surv. Popery iii. x. 412 It grieueth him to behold others famine. |
Hence
† ˈfamined ppl. a. Obs. rare.
| 1622 H. Sydenham Serm. Sol. Occ. (1637) 178 Rather..than sacrifice the remainder of a famin'd body to an honourable death. |