starveling
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Noun[edit]
starveling (plural starvelings)
- One who is thin from lack of food.
- c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
- If I hang, I'll make a fat pair of gallows; for if I hang, old Sir John hangs with me, and thou knowest he is no starveling.
- 1979, V. S. Naipaul, A Bend in the River:
- As for the starveling rebels of our region, they soon began to reappear in town, more starved and abject, their blackened rags hanging on them […]
Adjective[edit]
starveling (comparative more starveling, superlative most starveling)
- Starving; suffering from starvation.
- Meagre; scanty.
- 1930, Norman Lindsay, Redheap, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1965, →OCLC, page 128:
- [A] few meetings in the cape-broom, a starveling allowance of kisses in a very ill-advised publicity.
Quotations[edit]
- For more quotations using this term, see Citations:starveling.