From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishstarvestarve /stɑːv $ stɑːrv/ ●●○ S3 verb 1 HUNGRY/STARVING[intransitive] to suffer or die because you do not have enough to eat Thousands of people will starve if food doesn’t reach the city. pictures of starving children They’ll either die from the cold or starve to death (=die from lack of food).2 [transitive] to prevent someone from having enough food to live The poor dog looked like it had been starved.3 → be starving → starve somebody/something of something → starve somebody ↔ out→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
starve• The prisoners were taken out into the desert and left to starve.• The world cannot stand by and watch while these people starve.• I was away in the Army and always starved for news for home.• And the ban will stay in place as long as the coastal strip is starved of much needed rain.• Reason that is disengaged and tightly regulated would starve other human faculties, they believed.• Unless these people get food in the next two weeks they will starve to death.• The entire population had starved to death.• Everyone around us was starving too.• In 1884, the crew of Young's ship nearly starved when they were blown off course.starve to death• The young elephants must eat several times daily, or they will starve to death.• He then went off, leaving his rival to starve to death.• It is, of course, less honest than Spencer and denies that anyone will starve to death.• Rather, they lived, screaming and alone in the darkness until they eventually starved to death.• Some one like you is likely to lie down in the street and starve to death.• The entire population had starved to death.• Few of them starved to death: diseases take a deadlier toll of weakened bodies than undernourishment.• Some will starve to death, others will die of exposure, still others will be beaten or burned or tortured.Origin starve Old English steorfan “to die” 