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Webster's Dictionary (1865)

2 entries under this word

Famish

Fâm'ish, v. t.

verbtransitive

v. t. [imp. & p. p. FAMISHED (făm'isht); p. pr. & vb. n. FAMISHING.] [O. Fr. famis, starving. See supra, and cf. AFFAMISH.]

  1. To starve, kill, or destroy with hunger. Shak.
  2. To exhaust the strength of by hunger; to distress with hunger.

The pains of famished Tantalus he'll feel. Dryden.

  1. To kill by deprivation or denial of any thing necessary; to cause to suffer extremity by absence of some necessary condition; as, to famish him of breath. Milton.
  2. To force or constrain by famine.

He had famished Paris into a surrender. Burke.

Fām'ish, v. i.

verbintransitive

v. i. 1. To die of hunger; to starve.

Sense 2. To suffer extreme hunger or thirst; to be exhausted in strength, or to come near to perish for want of food or drink.

You are all resolved rather to die than to famish. Shak.

Sense 3. To suffer extremity from deprivation of any thing essential or necessary.