Definition

1. Noun:
   • A person or animal that is extremely thin and weak from lack of food; someone who is starving. The word emphasizes the physical state of emaciation and suffering due to hunger.

Usage

• The word "starveling" is a somewhat literary or archaic term. It is used to describe a living being in a pitiful condition of severe hunger, often to evoke sympathy or highlight deprivation. It functions as a count noun.

Examples

• Noun:
  • The kind woman took pity on the poor starveling child and gave him a loaf of bread.
  • After the long winter, the farmer found his horse looking like a starveling.
  • The charity's mission was to provide food for the starvelings in the famine-stricken region.

Advanced Usage

• Used attributively (as an adjective): While primarily a noun, "starveling" can be used before another noun to describe it.
  • He was forced to work for a starveling wage. (Here, "starveling" metaphorically describes a wage so small it is like starvation.)
  • They lived in a starveling village where crops failed every year.

Variants and Related Words

• Starve (verb): To suffer or die from extreme hunger; to cause someone to suffer in this way.
  • Without rain, the crops will fail and the people will starve.
• Starvation (noun): The state of suffering or dying from hunger.
  • The refugees faced imminent starvation.

Synonyms

• Waif: A homeless, neglected, or abandoned person, especially a child. (Often implies thinness.)
• Skeleton: A very thin person or animal. (More informal and emphasizes extreme thinness.)
• Bag of bones: An informal idiom for a very thin person or animal.

Antonyms

• Glutton: A person who eats too much.
• Overweight person: A person who weighs more than is considered healthy.

Noun

1. someone who is starving (or being starved)