Famish

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /ˈfamɪʃ/

Origin

Middle English famisshe, from famen ("starve"), from Old French afamer. Compare affamish, famine.

Full definition of famish

Verb

1. (obsolete, transitive) To starve (to death); to kill or destroy with hunger.
• 1621, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, I.iv.1:Even so did Corellius Rufus, another grave senator, by the relation of Plinius Secundus, Epist. lib. 1, epist. 12, famish himself to death ....
2. (transitive) To exhaust the strength or endurance of, by hunger; to distress with hunger.
• And when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread. -- Gen. xli. 55.
• The pains of famished Tantalus he'll feel. --Dryden.
3. (transitive) 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.
4. (transitive) To force or constrain by famine.
• He had famished Paris into a surrender. -- Burke.
5. (intransitive) To die of hunger; to starve.
6. (intransitive) 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? -- Shakespeare
7. (intransitive) 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.