Definition of Famine

1. Noun. An acute insufficiency.

Exact synonyms: Dearth, Shortage
Generic synonyms: Deficiency, Lack, Want

2. Noun. A severe shortage of food (as through crop failure) resulting in violent hunger and starvation and death.

Definition of Famine

1. n. General scarcity of food; dearth; a want of provisions; destitution.

Definition of Famine

1. Noun. extreme shortage of food in a region ¹

2. Noun. a period of extreme shortage of food in a region ¹

3. Noun. During times of '''famine''' ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Famine

1. a widespread scarcity of food [n -S]

Medical Definition of Famine

1. General scarcity of food; dearth; a want of provisions; destitution. "Worn with famine." "There was a famine in the land." (Gen. Xxvi. 1) Famine fever, typhus fever. Origin: F. Famine, fr. L. Fames hunger; cf. Gr. Want, need, Skr. Hani loss, lack, ha to leave. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Famine

family room
family rooms
family size
family therapy
family tree
family trees
family unit
family values
family way
familyish
familyless
familylessness
familylike
familymoon
familymoons
famine (current term)
famine dropsy
famine fever
famine resistant
faminelike
famines
faming
famish
famished
famishedly
famishes
famishing
famishment
famishments
famisht

Literary usage of Famine

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London by Royal Society (Great Britain) (1901)
"(Great famine.) The Interval between the Pulses, taking 1885-6 as the ... Bombay famine T- Tit • Upper India famine 1874-5 - 11 = 1863-4, Madras famine T ..."

2. Daniel Defoe: His Life and Recently Discovered Writings: Extending from 1716 by Lee, William, Daniel Defoe (1869)
"I shall in my next tell you, that our pretended Fears, and Prophecies of famine and Scarcity, are so groundless, that had we not such a view of a plentiful ..."

3. The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas by Edward Westermarck (1906)
"... and Phenicians.2 In a grievous famine, after other great sacrifices, of oxen and of men, had proved unavailing, the Swedes offered up their own king ..."

4. The Journal of Geography by National Council of Geography Teachers (U.S.) (1902)
"FLOODS AND famine IN CHINA* By Daniel W. Mead, CE University of Wisconsin . FROM as early as 2300 BC to the present time, Chinese history tells of many ..."

5. The history of the decline and fall of the Roman empire by Edward Gibbon (1881)
"It was the inevitable consequence of rapine and oppression, which extirpated the produce of the present and the hope of future harvests. famine is almost ..."

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