Now rare. [f. as prec. + -MENT.]
1. The state, condition, or process of being famished or starved; an instance of this, hungry appetite. Also † a means of starving.
c. 1470. Hardyng, Chron., XLIV. iii.
| But some, for drede of famyshement, | |
| He treated with the duke Androgeus. |
1563–87. Foxe, A. & M. (1596), 66/2. Eugenia … was assailed with sundry kings of death: … famishment in prison.
1611. Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., IX. i. § 29. Hee caused the Earle by famishment to yeelde vp his Fort, and droue the French with disgrace out of the field.
1667. Answ. West to North, 13. The bane of Traffick, and the famishment of the poor Handicrafts-man.
1727–36. in Bailey.
1847. A. H. Clough, Poems & Pr. Rem. (1869), I. 279. Let not the sky, which in Ireland looks upon famishment and fever, see us here at Oxford, in the midst of health and strength, over-eating, over-drinking, and over-enjoying.
1855. Singleton, Virgil, II. 107.
| He with mad famishment, | |
| Three gullets opening snaps up that was thrown. |
† b. fig. Obs.
1569. Crowley, Soph. Dr. Watson, i. 206. Not to be pertaker of the mysticall supper at all, is a famishment and death.
1610–11. J. Davies, Wittes Pilgrimage, V ij b.
| Laugh and bee fatt, sith al you touch is Gold, | |
| Though that foode your Soules famishment affordes. |
† 2. = Famine 1. Obs.
1526. Tindale, Luke iv. 25. When greate fammisshment was troughoute all the londe.
1557. N. T. (Genev.), Mark xiii. 8. For there shal nation aryse against nation, and kingdome against kingdome: & there shalbe earthquakes in al quarters, and famishementes and troubles, these are the begynnynges of sorowes.
