"famish" meaning in English

See famish in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

IPA: /ˈfamɪʃ/ [UK] Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-famish.wav Forms: famishes [present, singular, third-person], famishing [participle, present], famished [participle, past], famished [past]
Etymology: From Middle English famisshe, from famen (“starve”), from Old French afamer, ultimately from Latin famēs (“hunger”). Compare affamish, famine. Cognate with Spanish hambre (“hunger”). Etymology templates: {{inh|en|enm|famisshe}} Middle English famisshe, {{der|en|fro|afamer}} Old French afamer, {{cog|es|hambre||hunger}} Spanish hambre (“hunger”) Head templates: {{en-verb}} famish (third-person singular simple present famishes, present participle famishing, simple past and past participle famished)
  1. (obsolete, transitive) To starve (to death); to kill or destroy with hunger. Tags: obsolete, transitive
    Sense id: en-famish-en-verb-f5RKB4cQ Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 23 14 21 3 22 11 8
  2. (transitive) To exhaust the strength or endurance of, by hunger; to cause to be very hungry. Tags: transitive
    Sense id: en-famish-en-verb-1XFLYpOr Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 23 14 21 3 22 11 8
  3. (transitive) To kill, or to cause great suffering to, by depriving or denying anything necessary. Tags: transitive
    Sense id: en-famish-en-verb-GhUtArSg Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with Bulgarian translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 23 14 21 3 22 11 8 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 16 18 25 6 16 13 6 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 14 17 30 4 13 14 8 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 14 16 38 4 14 11 4 Disambiguation of Terms with Bulgarian translations: 15 19 29 4 16 13 4
  4. (transitive) To force, control, or constrain by famine. Tags: transitive
    Sense id: en-famish-en-verb-L6KmPKIl
  5. (intransitive) To die of hunger; to starve to death. Tags: intransitive
    Sense id: en-famish-en-verb-1BKS2AA3 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 23 14 21 3 22 11 8
  6. (intransitive) To suffer extreme hunger or thirst, so as to be exhausted in strength, or to nearly perish. Tags: intransitive Translations (To suffer extreme hunger): гладувам (gladuvam) (Bulgarian)
    Sense id: en-famish-en-verb-x4Lxvc2r Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 23 14 21 3 22 11 8 Disambiguation of 'To suffer extreme hunger': 8 11 4 0 11 48 18
  7. (intransitive) To suffer extremity from deprivation of anything essential or necessary. Tags: intransitive
    Sense id: en-famish-en-verb-xh7~NwPd
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Derived forms: famisher, famishment

Inflected forms

{
  "derived": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0 0 0 0 0",
      "word": "famisher"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0 0 0 0 0",
      "word": "famishment"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "enm",
        "3": "famisshe"
      },
      "expansion": "Middle English famisshe",
      "name": "inh"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "fro",
        "3": "afamer"
      },
      "expansion": "Old French afamer",
      "name": "der"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "es",
        "2": "hambre",
        "3": "",
        "4": "hunger"
      },
      "expansion": "Spanish hambre (“hunger”)",
      "name": "cog"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Middle English famisshe, from famen (“starve”), from Old French afamer, ultimately from Latin famēs (“hunger”). Compare affamish, famine. Cognate with Spanish hambre (“hunger”).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "famishes",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "famishing",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "famished",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "famished",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "famish (third-person singular simple present famishes, present participle famishing, simple past and past participle famished)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "23 14 21 3 22 11 8",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "c. 1588–1593 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The Most Lamentable Romaine Tragedie of Titus Andronicus: […] (First Quarto), London: […] Iohn Danter, and are to be sold by Edward White & Thomas Millington, […], published 1594, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]:",
          "text": "Some ſay that Rauens foſter forlorne children, / The whilſt their owne birds famiſh in their neſts: / Oh be to me though thy hard hart ſay no, / Nothing ſo kinde but ſomething pittiful.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition I, section IV, member 1:",
          "text": "Even so did Corellius Rufus, another grave senator, by the relation of Plinius Secundus, Epist. lib.1, epist.12, famish himself to death […]",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To starve (to death); to kill or destroy with hunger."
      ],
      "id": "en-famish-en-verb-f5RKB4cQ",
      "links": [
        [
          "starve",
          "starve"
        ],
        [
          "hunger",
          "hunger"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(obsolete, transitive) To starve (to death); to kill or destroy with hunger."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "obsolete",
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "23 14 21 3 22 11 8",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 41:55:",
          "text": "And when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1697, Virgil, translated by John Dryden, The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:",
          "text": "The pains of famished Tantalus [he] shall feel.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To exhaust the strength or endurance of, by hunger; to cause to be very hungry."
      ],
      "id": "en-famish-en-verb-1XFLYpOr",
      "links": [
        [
          "exhaust",
          "exhaust#Verb"
        ],
        [
          "strength",
          "strength"
        ],
        [
          "endurance",
          "endurance"
        ],
        [
          "hungry",
          "hungry"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive) To exhaust the strength or endurance of, by hunger; to cause to be very hungry."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "23 14 21 3 22 11 8",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "16 18 25 6 16 13 6",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Entries with translation boxes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "14 17 30 4 13 14 8",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "14 16 38 4 14 11 4",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "15 19 29 4 16 13 4",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Bulgarian translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1667, John Milton, “Book XII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:",
          "text": "And famish him of breath, if not of bread?",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To kill, or to cause great suffering to, by depriving or denying anything necessary."
      ],
      "id": "en-famish-en-verb-GhUtArSg",
      "links": [
        [
          "depriving",
          "deprive"
        ],
        [
          "necessary",
          "necessary"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive) To kill, or to cause great suffering to, by depriving or denying anything necessary."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1790 November, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London Relative to that Event. […], London: […] J[ames] Dodsley, […], →OCLC:",
          "text": "He had […]famished Paris into a surrender.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To force, control, or constrain by famine."
      ],
      "id": "en-famish-en-verb-L6KmPKIl",
      "links": [
        [
          "famine",
          "famine"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive) To force, control, or constrain by famine."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "23 14 21 3 22 11 8",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To die of hunger; to starve to death."
      ],
      "id": "en-famish-en-verb-1BKS2AA3",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive) To die of hunger; to starve to death."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "intransitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "23 14 21 3 22 11 8",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:",
          "text": "You are all resolved rather to die than to famish?",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To suffer extreme hunger or thirst, so as to be exhausted in strength, or to nearly perish."
      ],
      "id": "en-famish-en-verb-x4Lxvc2r",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive) To suffer extreme hunger or thirst, so as to be exhausted in strength, or to nearly perish."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "intransitive"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "8 11 4 0 11 48 18",
          "code": "bg",
          "lang": "Bulgarian",
          "roman": "gladuvam",
          "sense": "To suffer extreme hunger",
          "word": "гладувам"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Proverbs 10:3:",
          "text": "The Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To suffer extremity from deprivation of anything essential or necessary."
      ],
      "id": "en-famish-en-verb-xh7~NwPd",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive) To suffer extremity from deprivation of anything essential or necessary."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "intransitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈfamɪʃ/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-famish.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/e/e7/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-famish.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-famish.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/e/e7/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-famish.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-famish.wav.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "famish"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English terms derived from Middle English",
    "English terms derived from Old French",
    "English terms inherited from Middle English",
    "English verbs",
    "Entries with translation boxes",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries",
    "Terms with Bulgarian translations"
  ],
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "famisher"
    },
    {
      "word": "famishment"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "enm",
        "3": "famisshe"
      },
      "expansion": "Middle English famisshe",
      "name": "inh"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "fro",
        "3": "afamer"
      },
      "expansion": "Old French afamer",
      "name": "der"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "es",
        "2": "hambre",
        "3": "",
        "4": "hunger"
      },
      "expansion": "Spanish hambre (“hunger”)",
      "name": "cog"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Middle English famisshe, from famen (“starve”), from Old French afamer, ultimately from Latin famēs (“hunger”). Compare affamish, famine. Cognate with Spanish hambre (“hunger”).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "famishes",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "famishing",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "famished",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "famished",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "famish (third-person singular simple present famishes, present participle famishing, simple past and past participle famished)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with obsolete senses",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English transitive verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "c. 1588–1593 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The Most Lamentable Romaine Tragedie of Titus Andronicus: […] (First Quarto), London: […] Iohn Danter, and are to be sold by Edward White & Thomas Millington, […], published 1594, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]:",
          "text": "Some ſay that Rauens foſter forlorne children, / The whilſt their owne birds famiſh in their neſts: / Oh be to me though thy hard hart ſay no, / Nothing ſo kinde but ſomething pittiful.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition I, section IV, member 1:",
          "text": "Even so did Corellius Rufus, another grave senator, by the relation of Plinius Secundus, Epist. lib.1, epist.12, famish himself to death […]",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To starve (to death); to kill or destroy with hunger."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "starve",
          "starve"
        ],
        [
          "hunger",
          "hunger"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(obsolete, transitive) To starve (to death); to kill or destroy with hunger."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "obsolete",
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English transitive verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 41:55:",
          "text": "And when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1697, Virgil, translated by John Dryden, The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:",
          "text": "The pains of famished Tantalus [he] shall feel.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To exhaust the strength or endurance of, by hunger; to cause to be very hungry."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "exhaust",
          "exhaust#Verb"
        ],
        [
          "strength",
          "strength"
        ],
        [
          "endurance",
          "endurance"
        ],
        [
          "hungry",
          "hungry"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive) To exhaust the strength or endurance of, by hunger; to cause to be very hungry."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English transitive verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1667, John Milton, “Book XII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:",
          "text": "And famish him of breath, if not of bread?",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To kill, or to cause great suffering to, by depriving or denying anything necessary."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "depriving",
          "deprive"
        ],
        [
          "necessary",
          "necessary"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive) To kill, or to cause great suffering to, by depriving or denying anything necessary."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English transitive verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1790 November, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London Relative to that Event. […], London: […] J[ames] Dodsley, […], →OCLC:",
          "text": "He had […]famished Paris into a surrender.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To force, control, or constrain by famine."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "famine",
          "famine"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive) To force, control, or constrain by famine."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English intransitive verbs"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To die of hunger; to starve to death."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive) To die of hunger; to starve to death."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "intransitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English intransitive verbs",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:",
          "text": "You are all resolved rather to die than to famish?",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To suffer extreme hunger or thirst, so as to be exhausted in strength, or to nearly perish."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive) To suffer extreme hunger or thirst, so as to be exhausted in strength, or to nearly perish."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "intransitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English intransitive verbs",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Proverbs 10:3:",
          "text": "The Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To suffer extremity from deprivation of anything essential or necessary."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive) To suffer extremity from deprivation of anything essential or necessary."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "intransitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈfamɪʃ/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-famish.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/e/e7/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-famish.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-famish.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/e/e7/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-famish.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-famish.wav.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "bg",
      "lang": "Bulgarian",
      "roman": "gladuvam",
      "sense": "To suffer extreme hunger",
      "word": "гладувам"
    }
  ],
  "word": "famish"
}

Download raw JSONL data for famish meaning in English (6.9kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-11-21 using wiktextract (95d2be1 and 64224ec). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.