Meanings
- obsoleteparticiplepastpast participle of starve
- archaicstarved
So Mr. King, as assistant surgeon, Bandaged, and dosed, and nursed, and dressed, And worked, as he ate and drank, with zest, Until he began to blossom and burgeon To redness of features and fulness of cheek, And his starven hands grew plump and sleek.
1901, Various, Successful Recitations2 more examples
CHAPTER XXI.--SEVEN BROKEN MEN. At last there was but one horseman in chase of the six men who were fleeing without a look behind them--a frenzied blackavised trooper on a short-legged garron he rode most clumsily, with arms that swung like wings from the shoulders, his boots keeping time to the canter with grotesque knockings against the gaunt and sweating flanks of his starven animal.
1898, Neil Munro, John SplendidSooner the Heavenly Powers would let them lie Eternally unrising 'neath a sky Arctic and lonely, where death's starven wind Raged full-delighted:--sooner would those kind Serenities man's generation cast Back into nothingness, than heaven should waste With finite anguish infinitely prolonged Until the Eternal Spring were stained and wronged.
1920, John Freeman, Poems New and Old
Origin
- Proto-Germanic*sterbaną“to die”
- Proto-Germanic*sturbanaz
- Old Englishstorfen“dead”
- Middle Englishstorven“dead from lack of food or warmth”
- Englishstarven
With analogical adjustment of stem vowel, from Middle English storven (“dead from lack of food or warmth”), from Old English storfen (“dead”), from Proto-Germanic *sturbanaz, past participle of Proto-Germanic *sterbaną (“to die”).
More words from Middle English, Old English, Proto-Germanic
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
starven. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/starven
“starven.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/starven. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “starven,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/starven.
Source: starven on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.