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Famish vs Famished - What's the difference?

famish | famished |

As verbs the difference between famish and famished

is that famish is (obsolete|transitive) to starve (to death); to kill or destroy with hunger while famished is (famish).

As an adjective famished is

extremely hungry.

famish

English

Verb

(es)
  • (obsolete) To starve (to death); to kill or destroy with hunger.
  • *, I.iv.1:
  • *:Even so did Corellius Rufus, another grave senator, by the relation of Plinius Secundus, Epist. lib.1, epist.12 , famish himself to death […].
  • To exhaust the strength or endurance of, by hunger; to distress with hunger.
  • :*And when all the land of Egypt was famished , the people cried to Pharaoh for bread. -- Gen. xli. 55.
  • :*The pains of famished Tantalus he'll feel. --Dryden.
  • To kill, or to cause to suffer extremity, by deprivation or denial of anything necessary.
  • :*And famish him of breath, if not of bread. -- Milton.
  • To force or constrain by famine.
  • :*He had famished Paris into a surrender. -- Burke.
  • To die of hunger; to starve.
  • To suffer extreme hunger or thirst, so as to be exhausted in strength, or to come near to perish.
  • :*You are all resolved rather to die than to famish ? -- Shakespeare
  • To suffer extremity from deprivation of anything essential or necessary.
  • :*The Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish . -- Prov. x. 3.
  • References

    *

    famished

    English

    Verb

    (head)
  • (famish)
  • Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Extremely hungry.