• vi. 餓死；挨餓；渴望
• vt. 使餓死；使挨餓

來自古英語 steorfan,死去，死掉，字面意思為身體變僵硬，來自 Proto-Germanic*sterban,變僵 硬，來自 PIE*ster,僵的，硬的，固定的，詞源同 startle,sterile.后詞義弱化為慢慢餓死，再弱 化為使挨餓，饑餓。

starve

starve: [OE] Starve means etymologically ‘be stiff’ – it goes back to a prehistoric Germanic base *star-, *ster- ‘be stiff’, which also produced English starch, stare, etc. The ‘stiffness’ of a corpse led to its use for ‘die’ – a meaning which it retains in the related German sterben and Dutch sterven. In English, however, from the 12th century onwards, starve gradually narrowed down in meaning to ‘dying from cold’ (which survived into the modern era in northern dialects) and ‘dying from hunger’.
=> starch, stare, stork

starve (v.)

Old English steorfan "to die" (past tense stearf, past participle storfen), literally "become stiff," from Proto-Germanic *sterban "be stiff" (cognates: Old Frisian sterva, Old Saxon sterban, Dutch sterven, Old High German sterban "to die," Old Norse stjarfi "tetanus"), from PIE root *ster- (1) "stiff, rigid" (see stereo-).

The conjugation became weak in English by 16c. The sense narrowed to "die of cold" (14c.); transitive meaning "to kill with hunger" is first recorded 1520s (earlier to starve of hunger, early 12c.). Intransitive sense of "to die of hunger" dates from 1570s. German cognate sterben retains the original sense of the word, but the English has come so far from its origins that starve to death (1910) is now common.

1. The animals were left to starve to death.

那些動物只能等著餓死。

來自《權威詞典》

2. We shall wait the enemy out, and watch them starve to death.

我們將以等待來拖垮敵人, 看著他們餓死.

來自《簡明英漢詞典》

3. You can't see your sister starve without trying to help her!

你不能讓你姐姐挨餓而不想法去幫助她!

來自《現(xiàn)代英漢綜合大詞典》

4. They decided to starve the enemy out.

他們決定使敵人受餓而出來.

來自《簡明英漢詞典》

5. Don't starve the kitten.

別餓著小貓.

來自《現(xiàn)代漢英綜合大詞典》