Starven
adj, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 past participle of starve form-of, obsolete, participle, past
- 1 starved archaic
"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."
Example
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."
Etymology
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”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.