starvation

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
starve/stɑːv/

▶verb

• 1 suffer or die or cause to suffer or die from hunger.

  ■ (starve someone out or into) force someone out of (a place) or into (a specified state) by starving them.

  ■ (usu. be starved of or US for) deprive of.

  ■ (be starving or starved) informal feel very hungry.

• 2 archaic be freezing cold.

– derivatives
starvation noun.

– origin OE steorfan ‘to die’, of Gmc origin, prob. from a base meaning ‘be rigid’ (cf. stare).