1549 J. Cheke Hurt of Sedicion sig. D6^v The poore..who in a comune scarsitie, lyue moste scarsely, and feeleth quiclieste the sharpenes of staruinge.

1589 R. Lane in R. Hakluyt Princ. Navigations iii. 740 [This] made me and my company as narrowly to escape staruing..as euer men did that missed the same.

1602 R. Carew Surv. Cornwall i. f. 67^v For a worse kind of people then these vagabonds, the realme is not pestered withal..: their staruing is not to be feared, for they may be prouided for at home, if they list.

1641 W. Guild Humble Addresse of Church & Poore (new ed.) sig. E1^v Those who should bee in these places supported, and releeved (like Amon, looking leaner from day to day) are now forced in their feeble strayings, and bedfast starvings, to poste up such groanes, and greevances, to the Throne of Justice, as may bee fittest pleaders of their cause, and plainers on their wrong.

1719 D. Defoe Farther Adventures Robinson Crusoe 19 To be next door to starving.

1774 C. Chauncy Let. 30 May in R. Price Corr. (1983) I. 170 Shutting up the port of Boston, and putting it out of the power of thousands of poor innocents to preserve themselves from starving, is..palpably cruel, barbarous, and inhumane.

1820 P. B. Shelley Œdipus Tyrannus ii. 38 We call thee Famine! Goddess of fasts and feasts, starving and cramming.

1842 F. Trollope Visit to Italy II. ix. 163 Our starvings, &c. did not begin..till after we had quitted the beaten track.

1914 Daily Courier-Gaz. (McKinney, Texas) 6 June 1/3 The cause of his starving was due to a stomach trouble which would not permit digestion.

1969 Jennings (Louisiana) Daily News 13 Nov. 10/3 We did our starving in Canada instead of moving down here.

2010 T. Crunk New Covenant Bound v. 70 You have done your starving for me.

1738 Gentleman's Mag. Jan. 34/1 Mr Dean sent his Verger to him, demanding his Name, and where his Living was; to which y^e honest Curate return'd the following Answer, with his Name; that Living he had none, but his Starving was in ——.

1797 E. Berkeley in G. M. Berkeley Poems Pref. p. ccccxliv The very worthy Vicar of the poor pitiful living, or rather starving, of White Waltham.

1844 W. Pennefather in Life & Lett. (1879) 171 I have been offered a pretty little living... Its value is £92 per annum..my father will call it a starving.

1861 J. Pycroft Ways & Words 274 It is not a living a man can earn there; it is a starving.

1970 H. S. Arnow Weedkiller's Daughter xiv. 307 Over and beyond these were the men who made their livings or their starvings by the sea.

?1565 A. Hartwell tr. W. Haddon Sight of Portugall Pearle sig. Cii To the outwarde manne there can be no suche paradise, but for the sowles slender edefyinge, nay nothinge but staruinge cheare.

1590 J. Smythe Certain Disc. Weapons 1 The tumultuarie, licentious, and staruing warres of the Low Countries.

1693 Humours & Conversat. Town 22 Modesty is a starving Quality, and only another Name for Folly.

1731 Gentleman's Mag. 1 118 The whole income remaining to the Church is but 15, 20, or 30 l. Yearly; which is but a starving Support.

1823 W. Scott St. Ronan's Well I. vii. 153 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.

2012 Korea Times (Nexis) 23 Nov. You should avoid the so-called starving diet and lose weight by doing aerobic exercise to have healthy bones in the future.

1658 E. Ashmole Way to Bliss ii. iii. 101 Moreover, keep off that starving Cold, and cherish the Life within, and you may help and amend Nature, and make any Plant flourish and bear in Winter.

1721 N. Amhurst Terræ-filius 1 Mar. [He] found him in his Lodgings by a little, starving Fire, with a Rush light Candle before him.

1829 R. Sharp Diary 26 Jan. (1997) 184 It has been a great deal of Snow and dismal starving weather for most of a week past.

1897 T. H. Warren By Severn Sea 41 On sullen earth, clogged flood and starving air.

1914 Sumner (Iowa) Gaz. 16 Apr. A friendship forged in the fires of battle-fields, tempered in the freezing starving snow fields of Russia.

1960 P. Galvin Christ in London 39 In the cruel night And the starving snow.

2004 S. Blackhall Minnie 65 It's dashed weel stervin in this car, sae it is!

2009 G. Gilman Cloud & Ashes 325 And the Fool flings wide the door on winter dark, on frost and famine, and the starving wind.

1581 W. Blandie Castle sig. Ciii^v But cherefully vow and consecrate his lustye limmes to tiresome labours, his body richly clad, to pinching nakednesse, his feeding nature, to staruing hunger.

1595 H. Roberts Pheander sig. L4^v The full gorged Churle litle regardeth the staruing creature at his gate.

a1631 J. Donne Poems (1635) 269 By our long starving hopes, by that remorse.

1647 True Relation Cruell Oppress. Prisoners Tower of London 6 Wee distressed, starving, and hunger-bitten Christians and Prisoners, cannot get with all the endeavour, sollicitation, and supplications that we can make, or use, one bit of bread, though out of our owne Estates, to save our lives.

1698 Charitable Samaritan 4 These Passive Gentlemen..would as certainly leave it in the lurch, as they would a starving Curacy in the Hundreds, for a rich Parsonage in a better Air.

1719 D. Defoe Farther Adventures Robinson Crusoe 31 I also forgot not the starving Crew..but order'd my own Boat..to carry them a Sack of Bread.

1733 A. Pope Ess. Man ii. 255 The starving Chymist in his golden Views Supremely blest.

1795 H. Macneill Scotland's Skaith iii. vi What a change, un-housed and beggared, Starving.

1817 P. B. Shelley Laon & Cythna x. xv. 219 All night, the lean hyænas their sad case Like starving infants wailed.

1877 N. Amer. Rev. Sept. 324 There are plenty of starving men out of work that will gladly accept half a loaf instead of no bread.

1913 P. G. Wodehouse Little Nugget (1914) i.16 And now won't you order that lunch you mentioned? I'm starving.

1922 F. Ossendowski Beasts, Men & Gods ix. 41 The starving family of the watchman lived at the mine in continuing danger and privation.

1979 Newsweek (U.S. ed.) (Nexis) 29 Jan. (National Affairs section) 33 National Guard helicopters airlifted 75,000 pounds of hay to starving cattle.

2006 B. George & L. Hardy Bobby Dazzler xi. 166 They soon picked up on my traits, including the industrial language...‘What's for dinner, Dad?’ Robert asked me when he was about four. ‘I'm fucking starving!’

2014 M. C. Ferris Edible South xvii. 289 Kennedy's encounter with a starving child in Mississippi put a face on American hunger.

1681 T. Otway Souldiers Fortune Epil. 72 So who e're Ventures on the Ragged Coast Of starving Poets, certainly is lost, They rail like Porters at the Penny-Post.

1724 Laugh & be Fat (ed. 9) 136 'Tis Gold that makes the Beau and Blockhead witty Whilst starving Poets beg with jingling Ditty.

1887 Judy 13 July 20/1 Most practical people know that there are far too many starving artists (?) in the field already.

1987 N. Spinrad Little Heroes (1989) 79 Garrets in which to be a starving writer or poet in Manhattan were called ateliers and went for half a million.

2004 Philadelphia Inquirer 26 Sept. a4/6 He says the poster was an easy and inexpensive way to promote the film. ‘We're starving artists’, he said. ‘We didn't have any money for any big-time marketing.’