A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
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First published 2001 (DOST Vol. IX).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1604-1605, 1659-1695
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Sterv(e)ing, Starving, ppl. adj. [ME and e.m.E. sterving (1387-8), staruing (1590); Sterv(e v.] a. Causing death. b. Caused by starvation. —a. a1605 Montg. Misc. P. xlv 11.
Thy sterving straik with force thou [sc. Death] let out flie, And light on me, to end my peirles pyne —b. 1659 Edinb. B. Rec. IX 150.
That the boy is in a lost and sterving conditioun 1685 Recs. of Old Tolbooth in Bk. Old Edinb. C. XI 37.
The petitioner is in a sad sterveing conditione 1695 Cramond Balveny Castle 23.
He himself kept in a starving condition till he was necessitat to pay a ransom for his relief 1695 Inverness Kirk S. 35.
Fourteen shilling Scots weeklie [to be given] for the maintinence of Helen Leith, who of late hes becom demented, and withall in a sterving condition
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"Sterving ppl. adj.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 15 Dec 2025 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/dost/sterveing>
