Word.ws English Dictionary

starveling

starveling noun: one who is thin from lack of food.

Noun

starveling (plural starvelings)

  1. One who is thin from lack of food.
    • 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.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...
    • The lean, drawn starvelings in their dream-stupefied state were jealous of my well filled out, prosperous form.1924 July [1923 August], Samuel Badisch Ornitz, “Fifth Period”, in Haunch Paunch and Jowl, eighth printing, New York, N.Y.: Boni and Liveright, section III, page 218

Adjective

starveling (comparative more starveling, superlative most starveling)

  1. Starving; suffering from starvation.
    • 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[…]1979, V. S. Naipaul, A Bend in the River
  2. Meagre; scanty.
    • [A] few meetings in the cape-broom, a starveling allowance of kisses in a very ill-advised publicity.1930, Norman Lindsay, Redheap, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, →OCLC, page 128

starveling meaning in Tamil

starveling in Tamil

பட்டினி கிடப்பவர் பற்றாக்குறை உணவுடையவர், பற்றாக்குறை உணவால் அவதியுறும் உயிர், பற்றாக்குறை உணவுடைய

Forms of starveling

Noun
pluralstarvelings
Adjective
comparativemore starveling
superlativemost starveling

Origin of starveling

From starve + -ling.

Questions about starveling

What does starveling mean?
Starveling means one who is thin from lack of food.
What is starveling in Tamil?
Starveling in Tamil is பட்டினி கிடப்பவர் பற்றாக்குறை உணவுடையவர், பற்றாக்குறை உணவால் அவதியுறும் உயிர், பற்றாக்குறை உணவுடைய. See Starveling meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is starveling?
Starveling can be a noun or an adjective.
What is the plural of starveling?
The plural of starveling is starvelings.

Words near starveling in the dictionary

  1. starve-acre
  2. starveacre
  3. starved
  4. starved the beast
  5. starvedly
  6. starveling
  7. starvelings
  8. starvemaxx
  9. starvemaxxed
  10. starvemaxxes
  11. starvemaxxing

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: starveling (page history and authors); starveling (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “starveling.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/starveling. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.