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famish

Famish is defined as to make or be hungry, starving or weak.

(verb)

An example of famish is for a person to not eat for a week.

See famish in Webster's New World College Dictionary

transitive verb, intransitive verb

to make or be very hungry; make or become weak from hunger
Obsolete to starve to death

Origin: ME famishen, altered (after verbs ending in -ish-: see -ish) < famen, aphetic < OFr afamer < VL *affamare < L ad, to + fames, hunger: see famine

Related Forms:

famishment noun

See famish in American Heritage Dictionary 4

verb fam·ished, fam·ish·ing, fam·ish·es

verb, transitive

To cause to endure severe hunger.
To cause to starve to death.

verb, intransitive

To endure severe deprivation, especially of food.
To undergo starvation and die.

Origin:

Origin: Middle English famishen

Origin: , alteration of famen

Origin: , from Old French afamer

Origin: , from Vulgar Latin *affamāre

Origin: : Latin ad-, ad-

Origin: + Latin famēs, hunger

Related Forms:

famˈish·ment noun

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