Famine
['fæmɪn]
Definition
(noun.) a severe shortage of food (as through crop failure) resulting in violent hunger and starvation and death.
Edited by Faye--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) General scarcity of food; dearth; a want of provisions; destitution.
Typist: Sadie
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. Dearth, scarcity of food.
Edited by Denny
Definition
n. general scarcity of food: extreme scarcity of anything as in 'famine prices ' &c.: hunger: starvation.
Typed by Jody
Unserious Contents or Definition
To dream of a famine, foretells that your business will be unremunerative and sickness will prove a scourge. This dream is generally bad. If you see your enemies perishing by famine, you will be successful in competition. If dreams of famine should break in wild confusion over slumbers, tearing up all heads in anguish, filling every soul with care, hauling down Hope's banners, somber with omens of misfortune and despair, your waking grief more poignant still must grow ere you quench ambition and en{??}y{envy??} overthrow.
Checker: Nellie
Examples
- One night last summer he glared at me like Famine and Sword, and it made me feel so low that I didn't comb out my few hairs for two days. Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
- I suppose animals kept in cages, and so scantily fed as to be always upon the verge of famine, await their food as I awaited a letter. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- Plague, earthquake, and famine, And tumult and war, The wonderful coming Of Jesus declare! Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- The God sends down his angry plagues from high, Famine and pestilence in heaps they die. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- He was a mechanic; and, rendered unable to attend to the occupation which supplied his necessities, famine was added to his other miseries. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- It had appeared a sudden famine to her heart, this entire cessation of any news respecting the people amongst whom she had lived so long. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. North and South.
- Georgy's house is not a very lively one since Uncle Jos's annuity has been withdrawn and the little family are almost upon famine diet. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- He pictured to himself a youth, whose eyes sparkled with genius, whose person was attenuated by famine. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- Mexico laid waste by the united effects of storm, pestilence and famine. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- These worthies suffer in the flesh and do penance all their lives, I suppose, but they look like consummate famine-breeders. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
- Famine and blockade were certain means of conquest; and on these we founded our hopes of victory. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- On Egdon, coldest and meanest kisses were at famine prices, and where was a mouth matching hers to be found? Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
- There was possibly much local variation, the rule of violent bullies here and a good-tempered freedom there, famine this year and plenty the next. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- Hence the exorbitant price of the necessaries of life during the blockade of a town, or in a famine. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- I wish he could have witnessed the horrible avidity with which Oliver tore the bits asunder with all the ferocity of famine. Charles Dickens. Oliver Twist.
Typed by Enid