'Famish' definitions:

Definition of 'famish'

verb

Be hungry; go without food; "Let's eat--I'm starving!" [syn: starve, hunger, famish] [ant: be full]

verb

Deprive of food; "They starved the prisoners" [syn: starve, famish] [ant: feed, give]

verb

Die of food deprivation; "The political prisoners starved to death"; "Many famished in the countryside during the drought" [syn: starve, famish]

From: GCIDE

Famish \Fam"ish\, v. i.
1. To die of hunger; to starve. [1913 Webster]
2. To suffer extreme hunger or thirst, so as to be exhausted in strength, or to come near to perish. [1913 Webster]
You are all resolved rather to die than to famish? --Shak. [1913 Webster]
3. To suffer extremity from deprivation of anything essential or necessary. [1913 Webster]
The Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish. --Prov. x. 3. [1913 Webster]

From: GCIDE

Famish \Fam"ish\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Famished; p. pr. & vb. n. Famishing.] [OE. famen; cf. OF. afamer, L. fames. See Famine, and cf. Affamish.]
1. To starve, kill, or destroy with hunger. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
2. To exhaust the strength or endurance of, by hunger; to distress with hanger. [1913 Webster]
And when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread. --Cen. xli. 55. [1913 Webster]
The pains of famished Tantalus he'll feel. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]
3. To kill, or to cause to suffer extremity, by deprivation or denial of anything necessary. [1913 Webster]
And famish him of breath, if not of bread. --Milton. [1913 Webster]
4. To force or constrain by famine. [1913 Webster]
He had famished Paris into a surrender. --Burke. [1913 Webster]