famish

/ˈfæm.ɪʃ/ (bre, ipa) · /ˈfæm.ɪʃ/ (ame, ipa) · /ˈfa-mish/ (ame, mw)

famish — verb

  • famishpresent simple I / you / we / they
  • famishes3rd person singular
  • famishing-ing form
  • famishedpast simple

1. to feel painfully empty in the stomach because you have not eaten for a long tim

1.動詞及物 / 不及物C1
釋義

to feel painfully empty in the stomach because you have not eaten for a long time, or to leave another person feeling that way by withholding food.

例句

After hiking up the mountain all morning, Liam said he was absolutely famished.

passive form 'be famished' as a casual intensifier for very hungry

The stray dogs near the temple gate looked famished and weak from days without food.

predicative use describing visible signs of long hunger

同義詞
  • starve

    much more common and neutral; can describe both feeling and dying of hunger

  • ravenous

    adjective meaning very hungry, more vivid than 'famished' in spoken English

  • peckish

    British informal; only mild hunger, not the extreme state 'famished' describes

反義詞
  • satiated

    formal; fully fed to the point of no further desire

  • full

    everyday opposite of 'famished' when describing the body state

文法句型

be famished

famish someone

用法筆記

Frequently passive (`be famished`) and used informally to mean 'very hungry' — much commoner than the active transitive form, which is now mostly literary or historical.

常見錯誤

❌I famish, let's eat.
✅I'm famished, let's eat.
💡the active intransitive almost never appears in modern speech; learners should default to the passive 'be famished'.
❌The drought famished about the farmers.
✅The drought famished the farmers.
💡when used transitively, 'famish' takes a direct object (no preposition).