starvedadj.
/stɑːvd/, U.S. /stɑrvd/ I. Deprived of food.
1.
a. Deprived of food and the necessaries of life; suffering from hunger or lack of food, famished, starving; poverty-stricken.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > possession > poverty > [adjective] > poor
havelessOE
unrichOE
waedlec1000
armOE
nakedOE
helplessc1175
wantsomec1175
poora1200
barec1220
needfula1225
misease?c1225
unwealya1300
needyc1325
feeblec1330
poorful1372
mischievousc1390
miseasedc1390
indigentc1400
meanc1400
naughtyc1400
succourless1412
unwealthyc1412
behove1413
misterousa1425
misterfulc1480
miserablec1485
beggarly1545
starved1563
threadbare1577
penurious1590
fortuneless1596
wealthless1605
wantful1607
necessitous1611
inopulent1613
titheless1615
egene1631
starveling1638
necessitated1646
inopious1656
parsimonious1782
unopulent1782
lacking1805
bushed1819
obolary1820
ill-to-do1853
down at heel1856
po'1866
needsome1870
down-at-heeled1884
rocky1921
the world > food and drink > food > consumption of food or drink > appetite > hunger > [adjective] > hungry > starving or starved
hungryc950
ofhungeredOE
hungeredc1425
famylousc1475
forhungered1481
hunger-starvena1533
starven1546
hunger-bit1549
hunger-bitten1549
affamished1554
starved1563
starving1581
gaunted1582
famishing1587
food-sick1587
hunger-starving1592
famined1622
gut-foundered1647
hunger-starved1647
starved-gut1653
half-starved1667
clemmed1674
nushed1691
pinch-gutted1704
starve-gutted1726
clemming1773
clung1807
1563 W. Baldwin et al. Myrrour for Magistrates (new ed.) Glendour f. xixv My body and fame she [sc. Fortune] hath made leane and slender For I poore wretch am sterued Owen Glendour.
1594 True Trag. Richard III sig. I He like to a starued Lionesse still called for blood, saying that I should die.
1600 W. Shakespeare Merchant of Venice v. i. 295 Faire Ladies, you drop Manna in the way of starued people. View more context for this quotation
1647 R. Stapleton tr. Juvenal Sixteen Satyrs xiv. 259 And thy sterv'd droves, thou sendst into his Corne.
a1704 T. Brown Satyr upon French King in Wks. (1707) I. i. 92 When my starv'd Entrails croke.
1711 A. Pope Ess. Crit. 25 What woful stuff this Madrigal wou'd be, In some starv'd Hackny Sonneteer, or me?
1823 W. Scott Quentin Durward I. ii. 36 This youth will do as much honour to it as a starved mouse to a housewife's cheese.
1877 Morning Gaz. (Fort Wayne, Indiana) 21 Nov. When the spring came the starved natives were able to procure food for the settlement.
1927 J. B. S. Haldane & J. S. Huxley Animal Biol. viii. 160 The blood contains about one part in a thousand of sugar, and this does not fall much in a starved man or animal.
1984 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 11 Dec. a 30/4 With good health care and good food, starved children not only catch up but may even go beyond the previous base line.
2010 Winnipeg Free Press 5 Feb. d7/2 The starved Chaplin eats his own boiled boots as though they were a delectable gourmet meal.
b. figurative and in extended use. That suffers from spiritual or mental want; (of a thing) deprived of necessary sustenance; lacking an essential resource or element.
ΚΠ
1582 J. Prime Short Treat. Sacraments sig. Aiiiv A writing drawen in strange characters and letters..vnderstoode but of a fewe, and of them no further then it pleased..to expounde in miserable maner, to hungry, poore, and sterued soules.
1600 W. Shakespeare Merchant of Venice iv. i. 137 Thy desires are woluish, bloody, staru'd, and rauenous. View more context for this quotation
1648 Case for City-spectacles 6 He speaks like the hinges of a starv'd buttery doore that whines for grease.
1669 A. Browne Ars Pictoria 90 When your silver either with long keeping or moistness of the Air becomes starved and rusty; you must..before you lay the silver Cover over the place with a little Juice of Garlick, which will preserve it.
1826 C. Lamb in New Monthly Mag. 16 262 For a starved grate, and a scanty firing.., he finds [at the alehouse] in the depths of winter always a blazing hearth.
1856 E. K. Kane Arctic Explor. I. viii. 81 Scanty as this starved flora may seem to the botanists of more favored zones.
1899 T. C. Allbutt et al. Syst. Med. VIII. 816 Essentially the same formation as a small starved wart upon the horny finger of a workman.
1912 J. S. Black & G. Chrystal Life W. R. Smith xii. 505 Here and there were a few meagre patches of starved wheat or barley.
1979 New Castle (Pa.) News 5 May 14/2 When the starved tissue is heart muscle, the result is a heart attack.
2014 Sun (Nexis) 1 Mar. 51 Leaf spot is worse on starved plants.
c. starved-out: forced out by starvation or poverty.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > possession > poverty > [adjective] > driven out by poverty
starved-out1844
the world > movement > motion in a certain direction > going or coming out > letting or sending out > [adjective] > expelling > expelled > specific people from a place, position, or possession > in specific manners
outshovena1400
burnt out1837
starved-out1844
bombed out1940
1844 Morning Chron. 20 July 2/4 They were able not only to provide for their own, but also to relieve the starved-out excess of their neighbours.
1878 J. Davidson Inverurie v. 155 Leslie..was occupied in 1600 by William Forbes, the starved-out minister of Kintore.
1929 Syracuse (N.Y.) Herald 20 Jan. (Mag.) 7/4 The project would save the remnant of the starved-out natives it is argued.
1979 Walla Walla (Washington) Union-Bull. 15 Oct. 11/2 A lot of farmers had bought machinery in the starved-out Dakotas and skipped out without paying.
2.
a. Of soil: poor in quality; spec. lacking nutrients or minerals in quantities sufficient for substantial or sustained growth of vegetation.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > structure of the earth > constituent materials > earth or soil > soil qualities > [adjective] > infertile > lacking fertilizing elements
hungry1577
starveda1591
meagre1794
wormless1837
a1591 H. Smith Jonahs Punishm. ii, in 6 Serm. (1594) 178 Say not I haue a stonie, or a starued, or a thornie ground.
a1660 H. Hammond Serm. (1675) xviii. 281 'Tis observed in husbandry, that soil, laid on hard, barren, starved ground doth improve it, and at once deface and enrich it.
1763 Museum Rusticum (ed. 2) I. 93 We are obliged to dig deep for a poorer or more starved kind [of gravel].
1856 3rd Ann. Rep. Mass. Board Agric. 68 I came to the conclusion that if I had treated my poor starved land more liberally with guano, I should have been amply repaid at harvest time.
1926 Times 27 Feb. 15/1 (advt.) Your seed will not stand a fair chance in starved soil.
2001 D. G. Hessayon Pocket Tree & Shrub Expert ii. 34 Cytisus will flourish in starved soil but there are several rules to follow.
b. Of a person or animal: emaciated from, or as if from, lack of food; lean, thin.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > bodily shape or physique > slim shape or physique > [adjective] > thin
leanc1000
thinc1000
swonga1300
meagrea1398
empty?c1400
(as) thin (also lean, rank) as a rakec1405
macilent?a1425
rawc1425
gauntc1440
to be skin and bone (also bones)c1450
leany?a1475
swampc1480
scarrya1500
pinched1514
extenuate1528
lean-fleshed1535
carrion-lean1542
spare1548
lank1553
carrion1565
brawn-fallen1578
raw-bone1590
scraggeda1591
thin-bellied1591
rake-lean1593
bare-boned1594
forlorn1594
Lented1594
lean-looked1597
shotten herring1598
spiny1598
starved1598
thin-belly1598
raw-boned1600
larbar1603
meagry?1603
fleshless1605
scraggy1611
ballow1612
lank-leana1616
skinnya1616
hagged1616
scraggling1616
carrion-like1620
extenuated1620
thin-gutted1620
haggard1630
scrannel1638
leanisha1645
skeletontal1651
overlean1657
emaciated1665
slank1668
lathy1672
emaciate1676
nithered1691
emacerated1704
lean-looking1713
scranky1735
squinny-gut(s)1742
mauger1756
squinny1784
angular1789
etiolated1791
as thin (also lean) as a rail1795
wiry1808
slink1817
scranny1820
famine-hollowed1822
sharp featured1824
reedy1830
scrawny1833
stringy1833
lean-ribbeda1845
skeletony1852
famine-pinched1856
shelly1866
flesh-fallen1876
thinnish1884
all horn and hide1890
unfurnished1893
bone-thin1899
underweight1899
asthenic1925
skin-and-bony1935
skinny-malinky1940
skeletal1952
pencil-neck1960
1598 T. Bastard Chrestoleros v. xii. 112 Bardus eates..Steru'de mutton, beefe with foote bemartelled, And skinn and bones.
1600 W. Shakespeare Henry IV, Pt. 2 iii. ii. 299 This same staru'd iustice [Shallow] . View more context for this quotation
a1637 B. Jonson Sad Shepherd i. vii. 7 in Wks. (1640) III A starv'd Muttons carkasse Would better fit their palates. View more context for this quotation
1638 F. Junius Painting of Ancients 35 They are puffed up, not stately; starved, not delicate.
1819 J. Keats La Belle Dame xi I saw their starved lips in the gloam, With horrid warning gaped wide.
1884 Standard Nat. Hist. V. 81 The American Pika, or ‘Little Chief’ Hare (L. princeps)... The miners and hunters in the West know these oddities as ‘conies’ and ‘starved rats’.
1904 J. Conrad Nostromo i. 3 Suffering in their starved and parched flesh.
1977 Salt Lake Tribune 10 July w 7/1 Luckily for most women, the starved look is out and the soft, curvy, feminine look is coming back in.
2014 Times (Nexis) 18 Apr. Looking at El Greco's starved figures makes us peckish.
c. figurative and in extended use. Lacking in substance; meagre, deficient; poor, feeble; jejune.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > goodness and badness > inferiority or baseness > inferior thing > [adjective]
salec1299
bastarda1348
sorry1372
slight1393
shrewd1426
singlec1449
backc1450
soberc1450
lesser1464
silly?a1500
starven1546
mockado1577
subaltern1578
bastardly1583
wooden1592
starved1604
perishing1605
starveling1611
minor1612
starvy1647
potsherd1655
low1727
la-la1800
waif1824
lathen1843
one-eyed1843
snide1859
bobbery1873
jerkwater1877
low-grade1878
shoddy1882
tinhorn1886
jerk1893
cheapie1898
shaganappi1900
buckeye1906
reach-me-down1907
pissy1922
crappy1928
cruddy1935
el cheapo1967
pound shop1989
society > leisure > the arts > literature > style of language or writing > weakness or feebleness > [adjective] > bald
barrena1387
baldc1390
meagre1539
barec1540
starved1604
poor1842
poverty-stricken1865
1604 Abp. G. Abbot Reasons Dr. Hill Vnmasked iv. 147 But hee doth not tell vs at whose charges these [Colledges] were erected, or what was given to maintaine them, And certainly they were for the most part but poore & starved things, such as whereof they themselues do make small boast.
a1637 B. Jonson Timber 2083 in Wks. (1640) III The Language is thinne, flagging, poore, starv'd.
1704 J. Swift Tale of Tub i. 40 Little starved Conceits, are gently wafted up by their own extreme Levity, to the middle Region.
1747 J. Wesley Char. Methodist 6 May the Lord God of my Fathers preserve me, from such a poor, starved Religion as This!
1795 H. L. Piozzi Diary 17 Apr. in Thraliana (1942) II. 920 The Blackbirds scarce begin a faint starved Note now.
1856 Examiner 8 Mar. 147/2 Such are the grave deficiencies to be noted in even the starved little attempt we make to provide judicial statistics.
1870 F. R. Wilson Archit. Surv. Churches Lindisfarne 34 A nave..with a small, stiff, starved tower.
1874 J. T. Micklethwaite Mod. Parish Churches 130 Logs [of wood] tortured into the forms of starved masonry.
1924 H. G. Wells Dream vii. 274 We successful and respectable ones went our dignified and satisfied ways, assuaging the thin protests of our starved possibilities with such unsubstantial refreshment.
1982 Guardian Weekly (Nexis) 6 June 21 The paint surface looked thin, overstretched, starved.
d. Botany. Of a plant, plant variety, or plant part: stunted or imperfectly developed, as (or as if as) a result of lack of nutrients or water; = depauperate adj. b. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > by growth or development > defined by poor growth > [adjective] > stunted or underdeveloped
wanthriven1508
scrubby1591
unthriven1680
nithered1691
strunty1756
stinted1759
starved1785
nirled1808
scrunty1811
scrawny1883
1785 J. Bolton Filices Britannicæ I. 35 Is it possible that Polipodium lonchitis should be a starved variety of Polipodium aculeatum?
1832 J. Lindley Introd. Bot. 419 Starved (depauperatus); when some part is less perfectly developed than is usual with plants of the same family. Thus, when the lower scales of a head of a Cyperaceous plant produce no flowers, these scales are said to be starved.
1874 Monthly Microsc. Jrnl. 12 12 Lindberg considers squarrosulum Lesq. to be rather a starved or undeveloped form than a distinct variety.
1921 N.Y. State Mus. Bull. Mar. 42 Purely a starved or depauperate form and perhaps not worth any systematic recognition.
1979 Kew Bull. 34 270 After some while in cultivation the leaves became much broader and this made him think that the plant might be just a starved form of the well known species from west Africa.
e. Ceramics. Of a glaze: lacking the expected brilliance after firing.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > painting or coating materials > [adjective] > glazed > types of ceramic or pottery glaze
stanniferous1823
raw1825
flambé1886
tea-dust1897
monastic1909
tin-enamelled1933
starved1964
1964 H. Hodges Artifacts ii. 52 Under-firing may result in starved glazes which have a dull appearance.
1968 H. Powell Pottery Handbk. Clay, Glaze & Colour ii. 56 A starved glaze is lacking in shine.
1977 Harrison Mayer Ltd. Catal. 18/2 Starved glaze. The glaze surface is dull in areas which have been adjacent to porous refractories during firing. As the term implies glaze volatiles are sucked away from the surface of the glaze by the porous refractory.
2012 M. Harbridge in A. Turner Surface, Glaze & Form 100 It's possible they'll get streaks or starved glaze areas where the smaller brush is used.
II. Dead.
3. Of a branch or plant stem: dead, dry, withered, leafless. Now Heraldry.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > by growth or development > defined by poor growth > [adjective] > withered or dry
withered1488
wizened1513
starven1546
faded1574
starved1578
flaccid1626
davereda1794
wilted1809
1578 J. Bell tr. J. Foxe Serm. Christening Certaine Iew sig. A.vi That heauenly gardiner..doeth many times prune this litle Oliue tree of his Church, but neuer plucketh it vp by the rootes..cutting of eftsoones wyndshaken bowes and starued branches [L. defractis ramentis], that new plantes may prosper the better.
1580 R. Parsons Brief Disc. f. 50v As dead..as a starued stake in the hedge, from bearing of flowers.
1610 J. Guillim Display of Heraldrie iii. vii. 106 He beareth Argent, three sterued branches, slipped Sable... This Example is of different nature..being mortified and vnuested of the verdour which sometimes it had.
1754 A. Boyer Great Theater Honour (ed. 2) 116 Starved, Adj. (or dead, speaking of Branches of Trees without Leaves), Mort, Sec.
?1828 W. Berry Encycl. Heraldica I. sig. Xxx2v/2 Starved, a term used by heralds to denote a branch of a tree when stripped of all its leaves.
1858 E. J. Millington Heraldry xvii. 250 Trunks of trees are generally raguly, (cut jaggedly,) or knobbed, and sometimes with starved, or withered, branches.
1962 H. Allcock Heraldic Design 95 Starved, said of a branch shown without leaves.
III. Perished with cold.
4. Perished with cold, frozen, numbed. Now chiefly English regional (northern).Recorded earliest in winter-starved (see winter n.1 Compounds 1b).
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > properties of materials > temperature > coldness > [adjective] > affected with or having sensation of cold > perishing with cold
starveda1586
starveling1697
starven1887
a1586 Sir P. Sidney Apol. Poetrie (1595) sig. K4 So is that honny-flowing Matron Eloquence, apparelled..with figures and flowers, extreamelie winter-starued.
1594 W. Shakespeare Titus Andronicus iii. i. 252 Alas poore hart, that kisse is comfortlesse, As frozen water to a starued snake. View more context for this quotation
a1616 W. Shakespeare Henry VI, Pt. 2 (1623) iii. i. 343 I feare me, you but warme the starued Snake. View more context for this quotation
1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost iv. 769 Serenate, which the starv'd Lover sings To his proud fair. View more context for this quotation
1847 C. Brontë Jane Eyre I. vii. 107 Behind them the younger children crouched in groups, wrapping their starved arms in their pinafores.
1878 R. Browning La Saisiaz in La Saisiaz: Two Poets of Croisic Prol. 1 Such a starved bank of moss Till that May-morn Blue ran the flash across: Violets were born!
1893 J. K. Snowden Tales Yorks. Wolds 158 Willie was rubbing his hands slowly before the roaring fire. ‘I'm fearful starved’, he said.
1894 R. Bridges Palm Willow i See, whirling snow sprinkles the starved fields.
1898 J. Hutchinson Archives Surg. IX. 302 When I get a cold I never shew it, but only feel chilly and starved.
1968 G. Butler Coffin Following vi. 123 You look proper starved... Cold, that's what starved means.
Compounds
C1. Parasynthetic.
starved-looking adj.
ΚΠ
1753 Patrick's Purgatory: Fragment shall be Saved 5 Jenny Minor, of late, was grown plump and sizeable, and was a starved-looking jade before.
1888 E. Gerard Land beyond Forest II. xlvii. 255 Starved-looking daisies, and spiritless, emaciated camomiles, are all the flowers to be seen.
1916 Soil 1 11 One very poor and starved-looking Tarahumare carried 226 2/5 pounds on his back.
2015 Malta Independent (Nexis) 29 Jan. Extra-uber-skinny retro pants stood out in a collection that featured starved-looking women as well as men.
C2. † starved-gut adj. Obsolete famished, starving; = starve-gutted adj. at starve v. Compounds.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > consumption of food or drink > appetite > hunger > [adjective] > hungry > starving or starved
hungryc950
ofhungeredOE
hungeredc1425
famylousc1475
forhungered1481
hunger-starvena1533
starven1546
hunger-bit1549
hunger-bitten1549
affamished1554
starved1563
starving1581
gaunted1582
famishing1587
food-sick1587
hunger-starving1592
famined1622
gut-foundered1647
hunger-starved1647
starved-gut1653
half-starved1667
clemmed1674
nushed1691
pinch-gutted1704
starve-gutted1726
clemming1773
clung1807
1653 J. Ford Queen sig. B1v/2 You are a stinking starv'd-gut star gazer.
Derivatives
ˈstarvedly adv.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > quantity > insufficiency > [adverb] > scantily or meagrely
feeblyc1290
scarcely1340
scantc1440
scantly1509
daintilya1513
barelya1535
thinly1537
leanly1580
meagrelya1586
starvedly1606
exile1654
scantily1774
skimpingly1853
skimpily1859
stintedly1863
barrenly1877
the world > food and drink > food > consumption of food or drink > appetite > hunger > [adverb]
hungerlya1584
starvedly1606
starvingly1662
hungrily1693
yaply1768
esuriently1883
the world > life > biology > biological processes > development, growth, or degeneration > [adverb] > in an unthriving or atrophied manner
unthrivinglya1387
starvedly1865
stuntedly1907
1606 Bp. J. Hall Medit. & Vowes III. §24 Like some boasting housekeeper, which keepeth open doors for one day with much cheer, & liues staruedly al the yeer after.
1865 Athenæum 28 Jan. 122/2 But our lively lady..is ‘driven wild’ by the sight of hepaticas in myriads, which only grow at home starvedly.
1908 Everybody's Mag. Dec. 792/1 The miniature artist smiled starvedly.
1992 D. Revell Erasures i. 6 The bare extremities of the Lorelei gesture starvedly in the copper bowls.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2016; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.1563