starved

2.1

A person or animal who is very hungry because they have no food

adjective
/stɑrvd/

: hambriento

She felt starved after skipping breakfast and could hardly concentrate.

I was still having some eggs and a little bit of meat, so I wasn't starving, but I'm guessing that that's too limited.

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Examples

And then you remember commercials on TV, these fundraisers for all the starving children in the Caribbean, Africa, South America, Southeast Asia.

Ken McElroy
Families living in the Warsaw Ghetto quickly became starving and sick.
Have you guys been following the story about this girl who was essentially starved to almost to death?
The army's overworked, starving horses died on mass.
Destitute and starved French soldiers now plunder the Italian countryside freely.
The children were starved for days before help finally arrived.
Many people in the refugee camp were starved and in desperate need of food.

Synonyms

hungry

vsstarved

∞ 1.0

Feeling a need to eat

is much stronger, implying severe or prolonged lack of food

ravenous

vsstarved

18 6.0

Feeling very hungry and eager to eat

highlights actual shortage of food rather than craving intensity

underfed

vsstarved

3 3.4

Not having enough food to be healthy

carries a sharper sense of extreme immediate hunger

famished

vsstarved

Informal

1 5.1

Very hungry and needing to eat right away

focuses on lack of food rather than bodily weakness intensity

undernourished

vsstarved

1 4.4

Not having enough food to stay healthy and grow

describes acute extreme hunger rather than chronic nutritional shortage

starving

vsstarved

1 1.4

Very hungry and needing food now

is the same extreme lack but used more as a past state

sharp-set

vsstarved

1 9.1

Feeling very hungry and ready to eat a lot

points to actual food shortage rather than simply strong appetite

ill-fed

vsstarved

1 5.5

Not getting enough food to stay healthy

emphasizes acute extreme hunger rather than long-term poor feeding

esurient

vsstarved

Archaic

9.9

Very hungry and wanting a lot of food or money

restricts the sense to physical lack of food only

empty-bellied

vsstarved

4.1

Feeling hungry and weak

uses a stronger, more severe lack of food tone

unnourished

vsstarved

7.5

Not having enough food or nutrients to grow and stay healthy

centers on immediate intense hunger rather than nutritional deficits

Antonyms

well-fed

20 1.1

Not hungry because you have eaten enough food

satiated

1 5.5

Having eaten enough that you do not want more food

Compounds

starved aster

9.1

A small North American plant with tiny white daisy-like flowers on thin stems

How Hungry

starved

2.1

ravenous

18 6.0

hungry

∞ 1.0

peckish

5 7.3

Surface Forms

starved positive

Morphology

starved = starve (transparent) = starve + ed

The adjective is the regular past-participial/adjectival form of the verb 'starve' (starve + -ed), so learners who know 'starve' can readily infer 'starved'.

Etymology

Starved comes from the old English verb starve, which originally meant 'to die' and later came to mean 'to die from lack of food', and you can see the same root in starvation. So, if someone is starved, they are extremely hungry because they do not have enough food.