Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Famish

Famish , transitive verb

[Old English famen; compare Old French afamer, Latin fames. See Famine, and compare Affamish.]

1.
To starve, kill, or destroy with hunger. — Shakespeare
2.
To exhaust the strength or endurance of, by hunger; to distress with hanger.
And when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread. — Cen. xli. 55
The pains of famished Tantalus he'll feel. — Dryden
3.
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
4.
To force or constrain by famine.
He had famished Paris into a surrender. — Burke

Famish , intransitive verb

1.
To die of hunger; to starve.
2.
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
3.
To suffer extremity from deprivation of anything essential or necessary.
The Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish. — Bible (KJV) - Proverb x. 3