Famine

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Famine \Fam"ine\, n. [F. famine, fr. L. fames hunger; cf. Gr.
     ????? want, need, Skr. h[=a]ni loss, lack, h[=a] to leave.]
     General scarcity of food; dearth; a want of provisions;
     destitution. "Worn with famine." --Milton.
     [1913 Webster]
  


           There was a famine in the land.          --Gen. xxvi.
                                                    1.
     [1913 Webster]
  
     {Famine fever} (Med.), typhus fever.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  famine
       n 1: an acute insufficiency [syn: {dearth}, {shortage}]
       2: a severe shortage of food (as through crop failure)
          resulting in violent hunger and starvation and death

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  42 Moby Thesaurus words for "famine":
     absence, aridity, barrenness, beggary, birth control,
     contraception, dearth, defectiveness, deficiency, deficit,
     deprivation, destitution, drought, dry womb, dryness, exiguity,
     family planning, imperfection, impotence, impoverishment,
     incompleteness, ineffectualness, infecundity, infertility, lack,
     need, omission, paucity, planned parenthood, scarcity, shortage,
     shortcoming, shortfall, starvation, sterileness, sterility,
     unfertileness, unfruitfulness, unproductiveness, want, wantage,
     withered loins
  
  

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  Famine
     The first mentioned in Scripture was so grievous as to compel
     Abraham to go down to the land of Egypt (Gen. 26:1). Another is
     mentioned as having occurred in the days of Isaac, causing him
     to go to Gerar (Gen. 26:1, 17). But the most remarkable of all
     was that which arose in Egypt in the days of Joseph, which
     lasted for seven years (Gen. 41-45).
     
       Famines were sent as an effect of God's anger against a guilty
     people (2 Kings 8:1, 2; Amos 8:11; Deut. 28:22-42; 2 Sam. 21:1;
     2 Kings 6:25-28; 25:3; Jer. 14:15; 19:9; 42:17, etc.). A famine
     was predicted by Agabus (Acts 11:28). Josephus makes mention of
     the famine which occurred A.D. 45. Helena, queen of Adiabene,
     being at Jerusalem at that time, procured corn from Alexandria
     and figs from Cyprus for its poor inhabitants.