famish

verb

Etymology: From Middle English famisshe, from famen (“starve”), from Old French afamer, ultimately from Latin famēs (“hunger”). Compare affamish, famine. Cognate with Spanish hambre (“hunger”).

1. To starve (to death); to kill or destroy with hunger.

   “Even so did Corellius Rufus, another grave senator, by the relation of Plinius Secundus, Epist. lib.1, epist.12, famish himself to death […]”

2. To exhaust the strength or endurance of, by hunger; to cause to be very hungry.

   “And when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread.”

   “The pains of famished Tantalus [he] shall feel.”

3. To kill, or to cause great suffering to, by depriving or denying anything necessary.

   “And famish him of breath, if not of bread?”

4. To force, control, or constrain by famine.

   “He had […]famished Paris into a surrender.”

5. To die of hunger; to starve to death.

   “Some ſay that Rauens foſter forlorne children, / The vvhilſt their ovvne birds famiſh in their neſts: / Oh be to me though thy hard hart ſay no, / Nothing ſo kinde but ſomething pittifull.”

6. To suffer extreme hunger or thirst, so as to be exhausted in strength, or to nearly perish.

   “You are all resolved rather to die than to famish?”

7. To suffer extremity from deprivation of anything essential or necessary.

   “The Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish.”