[fam.ish] vb [ME, prob. alter. of famen, fr. MF afamer, fr. (assumed) VL affamare, fr. L ad- + fames] vt (15c) 1: to cause to suffer severely from hunger
2. archaic: to cause to starve to death ~ vi 1 archaic: starve
2: to suffer for lack of something necessary "a moment when French poetry in particular was ~ing for such invention --T. S. Eliot" -- fam.ish.ment n