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Famish   Listen
verb
Famish  v. t.  (past & past part. famished; pres. part. famishing)  
1.
To starve, kill, or destroy with hunger.
2.
To exhaust the strength or endurance of, by hunger; to distress with hanger. "And when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread." "The pains of famished Tantalus he'll feel."
3.
To kill, or to cause to suffer extremity, by deprivation or denial of anything necessary. "And famish him of breath, if not of bread."
4.
To force or constrain by famine. "He had famished Paris into a surrender."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Famish" Quotes from Famous Books



... "get on" was suddenly slackened; the determination to famish himself as far as Fondi by way of punishing the landlord was abandoned; John chose the best apartment in the inn for his master's reception, and preparations were made ...
— Tales of a Traveller • Washington Irving

... allotted shelter, while mothers and maidens are digging up the soil with the spade, and often pulling up the stubble with their hands, preparatory to another crop. Switzerland could not afford to be a Kingdom,—the expense of a Court and Royal Family would famish half her people. Yet everywhere are the signs of frugal thrift and homely content. I met only two beggars in that long day's ride through sterile Switzerland, while in a similar ride through the fertile plains of Italy I should have encountered hundreds, though there ...
— Glances at Europe - In a Series of Letters from Great Britain, France, Italy, - Switzerland, &c. During the Summer of 1851. • Horace Greeley

... and took I wi' un to Penzance, for a companion. He order'd I, as I said things were a little famish'd like, here, to buy this for the young woman, and the old man he ...
— John Bull - The Englishman's Fireside: A Comedy, in Five Acts • George Colman

... wrongs, and hath judg'd righteously, And will repay it seven fold in my lap; This is forerunner of my After clap. Nor took I warning by my neighbors' falls, I saw sad Germany's dismantled walls, I saw her people famish'd, nobles slain, The fruitful land a barren Heath remain. I saw immov'd her Armyes foil'd and fled, Wives forc'd, babes toss'd, her houses calimed. I saw strong Rochel yielded to her Foe, Thousands of starved Christians there also I saw poor Ireland bleeding out ...
— Anne Bradstreet and Her Time • Helen Campbell

... And nothing left but skin and bone; Exposed to want, and wind, and weather, They just keep life and soul together, Till summer showers and evening's dew Again the verdant glebe renew; And, as the vegetables rise, The famish'd cow her want supplies; Without an ounce of last year's flesh; Whate'er she gains is young and fresh; Grows plump and round, and full of mettle, As rising from Medea's [1] kettle. With youth and beauty to enchant Europa's[2] counterfeit gallant. Why, Stella, should you knit your brow, ...
— Poems (Volume II.) • Jonathan Swift

... of a siege their safety would only be temporary. With their scant water supply at a distance and unprotected they could not hold out long in a siege, but would soon be compelled either to fight, fly or famish. ...
— Arizona Sketches • Joseph A. Munk

... imagine it is not proposed to introduce poverty, as a constable to keep the peace. If our dominions abroad are the roots which feed all this rank luxuriance of sedition, it is not intended to cut them off in order to famish the fruit. If our liberty has enfeebled the executive power, there is no design, I hope, to call in the aid of despotism, to fill up the deficiencies of law. Whatever may be intended, these things are not yet professed. We seem therefore to be driven ...
— The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. I. (of 12) • Edmund Burke

... lowd voice, saying: o yee dead spirites whom I have so highly and greatly offended, vouchsafe to receive me, behold I make Sacrifice unto you with my whole body: which said, hee closed the Sepulchre, purposing to famish himselfe, and to finish his life there in sorrow. These things the young man with pitifull sighes and teares, declared unto the Cowheards and Shepheards, which caused them all to weepe: but they fearing to become subject unto new masters, ...
— The Golden Asse • Lucius Apuleius

... wolf, whose shaggy skin (So strict the watch of dogs had been) Hid little but his bones, Once met a mastiff dog astray. A prouder, fatter, sleeker Tray, No human mortal owns. Sir Wolf in famish'd plight, Would fain have made a ration Upon his fat relation; But then he first must fight; And well the dog seem'd able To save from wolfish table His carcass snug and tight. So, then, in civil ...
— The Fables of La Fontaine - A New Edition, With Notes • Jean de La Fontaine

... Negroes are very numerous, some Gentlemen having Hundreds of them of all Sorts, to whom they bring great Profitt; for the Sake of which they are obliged to keep them well, and not over-work, starve or famish them, besides other Inducements to favour them; which is done in a great Degree, to such especially that are laborious, careful and honest; tho' indeed some Masters, careless of their own Interest ...
— Pioneers of the Old South - A Chronicle of English Colonial Beginnings, Volume 5 In - The Chronicles Of America Series • Mary Johnston

... Katharine, the haughty Katherine, was fain to beg the servants would bring her secretly a morsel of food; but they being instructed by Petruchio, replied, they dared not give her anything unknown to their master. 'Ah,' said she, 'did he marry me to famish me? Beggars that come to my father's door have food given them. But I, who never knew what it was to entreat for anything, am starved for want of food, giddy for want of sleep, with oaths kept waking, and with brawling fed; and that which vexes me more ...
— Tales from Shakespeare • Charles and Mary Lamb

... And, like his stamp, makes basest metals pass. 'Twere folly now a stately[48] pile to raise, To build a playhouse, while you throw down plays; While scenes, machines, and empty operas reign, And for the pencil you the pen disdain: While troops of famish'd Frenchmen hither drive, And laugh at those upon whose alms they live: Old English authors vanish, and give place 40 To these new conquerors of the Norman race. More tamely than your fathers you submit; You're now grown vassals ...
— The Poetical Works of John Dryden, Vol II - With Life, Critical Dissertation, and Explanatory Notes • John Dryden

... of the law is considered by the higher classes to be a base pursuit: no man of family would degrade himself by engaging in it. A younger son of the poorest noble would famish rather than earn his livelihood in an employment considered vile. The advocate is seldom if ever admitted into high society in Rome; nor can the princes (so called) or nobles comprehend the position of a barrister in England. They would as soon permit a facchino as an advocate to enter their palaces; ...
— Pilgrimage from the Alps to the Tiber - Or The Influence of Romanism on Trade, Justice, and Knowledge • James Aitken Wylie

... nothing," and again (xlv. 23), "O cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He will nourish thee." In the books that deal with Wisdom we have (Proverbs x. 3) "The Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish." In the Prophets (Isai i. 19), "If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land." In the Gospels (S. Matt. vi. 33), "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." In the Epistles (Pet. v. 7), ...
— The Village Pulpit, Volume II. Trinity to Advent • S. Baring-Gould

... Reserving, human left from human free. But this Usurper his encroachment proud Stayes not on Man; to God his Tower intends Siege and defiance: Wretched man! what food Will he convey up thither to sustain Himself and his rash Armie, where thin Aire Above the Clouds will pine his entrails gross, And famish him of Breath, if not of Bread? To whom thus Michael. Justly thou abhorr'st That Son, who on the quiet state of men 80 Such trouble brought, affecting to subdue Rational Libertie; yet know withall, Since thy original lapse, true ...
— The Poetical Works of John Milton • John Milton

... more of her, to drink his fill of her beauty and fix her image in his memory that he might not famish in his loneliness during the dreary winter months ...
— A Man of Two Countries • Alice Harriman

... Thus Cyrus tam'd the Macedon; a tomb Check'd him, who thought the world too straight a room. Have I obey'd the powers of face, A beauty able to undo the race Of easy man? I look but here, and straight I am inform'd, the lovely counterfeit Was but a smoother clay. That famish'd slave Beggar'd by wealth, who starves that he may save, Brings hither but his sheet; nay, th' ostrich-man That feeds on steel and bullet, he that can Outswear his lordship, and reply as tough To a kind word, as if his tongue were buff, Is chap-fall'n here: worms without wit or fear ...
— Poems of Henry Vaughan, Silurist, Volume II • Henry Vaughan

... vale a mountain rose, 65 Low at its base her fainting form she throws; "And here, my child, (she cried, with panting breath) "Here let us wait the hour of ling'ring death: "This famish'd bosom can no more supply "The streams that nourish life, my babe must die! 70 "In vain I strive to cherish for thy sake "My failing strength; but when my heart-strings break, "When my chill'd bosom can no longer warm, ...
— Poems (1786), Volume I. • Helen Maria Williams

... rest, the wolfish race Appear with belly gaunt and famish'd face: Never was so deform'd a beast of grace. His ragged tail betwixt his legs he wears, Close clapp'd for shame; but his rough crest he rears, And pricks up ...
— Lives of the Poets, Vol. 1 • Samuel Johnson

... little breakfast that morning, and verily I thought I should famish before their dinner hour arrived; and when at last it came, and I saw the table glittering with silver, I felt many misgivings as to my ability to acquit myself creditably. But by dint of watching Nellie, doing just what she did, and refusing just what ...
— Homestead on the Hillside • Mary Jane Holmes

... another's gold The miser hastens, in his own defence, And shuns the sight of tempting excellence; So, having seen you once so killing fair, A second sight were but to move despair. I take my eyes from what too much would please, As men in fevers famish their disease. ...
— The Works Of John Dryden, Volume 4 (of 18) - Almanzor And Almahide, Marriage-a-la-Mode, The Assignation • John Dryden

... the famish'd Eagle on his pray, Incorporating his rude lips in hers, Sucking her balmey breath soft as he may: Which did more vigor, through his brest disperse, Such kisses louers vse at first conuerse. All parts were to that center drawne I wis, Close as the dew-wormes at the breake of day, That ...
— Seven Minor Epics of the English Renaissance (1596-1624) • Dunstan Gale

... answer for those distinctions of caste and systems of labor which so degrade and famish masses of human beings, that the divine miracle of the feeding of the five thousand must be multiplied many times over before the truths of nature or revelation can be received into teachable minds or susceptible hearts? And who shall answer for the hereditary ...
— Thoughts on Educational Topics and Institutions • George S. Boutwell

... churl, screw, skinflint, crib, codger, muckworm^, scrimp, lickpenny^, hunks, curmudgeon, Harpagon, harpy, extortioner, Jew, usurer; Hessian [U.S.]; pinch fist, pinch penny. V. be parsimonious &c adj.; grudge, begrudge, stint, pinch, gripe, screw, dole out, hold back, withhold, starve, famish, live upon nothing, skin a flint. drive a bargain, drive a hard bargain; cheapen, beat down; stop one hole in a sieve; have an itching palm, grasp, grab. Adj. parsimonious, penurious, stingy, miserly, mean, shabby, peddling, scrubby, penny wise, near, ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget

... not cloy thy lips with loath'd satiety, But rather famish them amid their plenty, 20 Making them red and pale with fresh variety; Ten kisses short as one, one long as twenty: A summer's day will seem an hour but short, Being wasted in such time-beguiling ...
— Venus and Adonis • William Shakespeare

... old bed, Colonel, and everything comfortable," that gentleman said, "as I may honestly say. You may be pretty sure its kep aired, and by the best of company, too. It was slep in the night afore last by the Honorable Capting Famish, of the Fiftieth Dragoons, whose Mar took him out, after a fortnight, jest to punish him, she said. But, Law bless you, I promise you, he punished my champagne, and had a party ere every night—reglar tip-top swells, down from the clubs and the West End—Capting ...
— Vanity Fair • William Makepeace Thackeray



Words linked to "Famish" :   pass, choke, suffer, feed, perish, hunger, pass away, buy the farm, exit, drop dead, hurt, go, decease



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