Famine
noun
A situation when there is not enough food for a large number of people, causing illness and death.
The famine in the country resulted in thousands of deaths.
Often appears as...
- died of famine
- caused famine
noun
An extreme and general scarcity of food, as in a country or a large geographical area.
The pervasive famine in the region made survival a daily struggle.
Often appears as...
- spread of famine
- during the famine
noun
A severe shortage of something.
There is a famine of good literature these days.
Often appears as...
- experience a famine
- famine of ideas
Usage tips
Figurative
noun
A situation when there is not enough food for a large number of people, causing illness and death.
The famine in the country resulted in thousands of deaths.
Often appears as...
- died of famine
- caused famine
noun
An extreme and general scarcity of food, as in a country or a large geographical area.
The pervasive famine in the region made survival a daily struggle.
Often appears as...
- spread of famine
- during the famine
noun
A severe shortage of something.
There is a famine of good literature these days.
Often appears as...
- experience a famine
- famine of ideas
Usage tips
Figurative
Definition 1 of 3
Pro Tip 1/3Scale of Crisis
Emphasizes the severity and widespread impact of the food shortage on a population.
International organizations are addressing the famine that has affected millions.
Pro Tip 2/3Humanitarian Context
Often associated with war, drought, or disaster, leading to humanitarian aid responses.
Aid workers were deployed to alleviate the effects of famine.
Pro Tip 3/3Historical Events
Famines can be historical markers, usually associated with tragedies and past suffering.
The 1845 famine in Ireland is well-studied in history classes.
Pro Tip 1/3Scale of Crisis
Emphasizes the severity and widespread impact of the food shortage on a population.
International organizations are addressing the famine that has affected millions.
Pro Tip 2/3Humanitarian Context
Often associated with war, drought, or disaster, leading to humanitarian aid responses.
Aid workers were deployed to alleviate the effects of famine.
Pro Tip 3/3Historical Events
Famines can be historical markers, usually associated with tragedies and past suffering.
The 1845 famine in Ireland is well-studied in history classes.
Pro Tip 1/3Scale of Crisis
Emphasizes the severity and widespread impact of the food shortage on a population.
International organizations are addressing the famine that has affected millions.
Pro Tip 2/3Humanitarian Context
Often associated with war, drought, or disaster, leading to humanitarian aid responses.
Aid workers were deployed to alleviate the effects of famine.
Pro Tip 3/3Historical Events
Famines can be historical markers, usually associated with tragedies and past suffering.
The 1845 famine in Ireland is well-studied in history classes.
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Video examples
Gaming can make a better...
surviving through a famine, by eating on one day, and playing games on the next. Now, this is exactly, I think, how we're using games today. We're using games to escape real-world suffering -- we're using games to get away from everything that's broken in the real environment, everything that's not satisfying about real life,
Video examples
A filmmaker’s vision to...
reoccurring theme of war poverty and famine I was kind of confused as to why those deeply seeded questions that I've had my entire life would pop into my head while watching a show like Sex in the City but that's what happened and I think it happened because it was the answer to fight the single-story of
Video examples
Do we really need...
The effect was devastating. One million people died of famine, and over a million more were forced to leave Ireland. Nowadays, we avoid such agricultural catastrophes with the help of pesticides. Those are a range of manmade chemicals that control insects, unwanted weeds, funguses,
Video examples
Could comets be the...
Appearing throughout historical records, these mysterious lights that came out of nowhere and disappeared after a short while were thought to be ill omens of war and famine, or the wrath of gods. But recent research has revealed that comets may be even more deeply connected
Video examples
The infamous overpopulati...
for the question they were debating, anyway. As for the question itself, today, their focus on overpopulation represent a snapshot of history. Our understanding of what causes starvation and famine has we have the resources to support a growing human population,
Video examples
Is the Human Mind Wired...
illogical but and they buy the way because they get along just fine in life but I think it's an interesting point that our wild ancestors needing to survive in the in the presence of lands and drought and famine and things you
Video examples
The Chinese zodiac,...
Our ancestors were very busy surviving poverty, drought, famine, riot, disease and civil war. And finally, Chinese people have the time, wealth and technology to create an ideal life they've always wanted.
Video examples
James Hansen: Why I must...
will be committed to extinction. And increasing intensity of droughts and floods will severely impact breadbaskets of the world, causing massive famines and economic decline. Imagine a giant asteroid
Video examples
How to recognize a...
raised hopes of these dreams finally becoming reality. But time and time again, they instead turned into nightmares of war, famine, and oppression. And as artists began to question utopian thinking,
Video examples
Monkeys Wading Through...
are lands of feast and famine at their peak they support the greatest gatherings of wildlife found anywhere on earth
Video examples
Gaming can make a better...
surviving through a famine, by eating on one day, and playing games on the next. Now, this is exactly, I think, how we're using games today. We're using games to escape real-world suffering -- we're using games to get away from everything that's broken in the real environment, everything that's not satisfying about real life,
Video examples
A filmmaker’s vision to...
reoccurring theme of war poverty and famine I was kind of confused as to why those deeply seeded questions that I've had my entire life would pop into my head while watching a show like Sex in the City but that's what happened and I think it happened because it was the answer to fight the single-story of
Video examples
Do we really need...
The effect was devastating. One million people died of famine, and over a million more were forced to leave Ireland. Nowadays, we avoid such agricultural catastrophes with the help of pesticides. Those are a range of manmade chemicals that control insects, unwanted weeds, funguses,
Video examples
Could comets be the...
Appearing throughout historical records, these mysterious lights that came out of nowhere and disappeared after a short while were thought to be ill omens of war and famine, or the wrath of gods. But recent research has revealed that comets may be even more deeply connected
Video examples
The infamous overpopulati...
for the question they were debating, anyway. As for the question itself, today, their focus on overpopulation represent a snapshot of history. Our understanding of what causes starvation and famine has we have the resources to support a growing human population,
Video examples
Is the Human Mind Wired...
illogical but and they buy the way because they get along just fine in life but I think it's an interesting point that our wild ancestors needing to survive in the in the presence of lands and drought and famine and things you
Video examples
The Chinese zodiac,...
Our ancestors were very busy surviving poverty, drought, famine, riot, disease and civil war. And finally, Chinese people have the time, wealth and technology to create an ideal life they've always wanted.
Video examples
James Hansen: Why I must...
will be committed to extinction. And increasing intensity of droughts and floods will severely impact breadbaskets of the world, causing massive famines and economic decline. Imagine a giant asteroid
Video examples
How to recognize a...
raised hopes of these dreams finally becoming reality. But time and time again, they instead turned into nightmares of war, famine, and oppression. And as artists began to question utopian thinking,
Video examples
Monkeys Wading Through...
are lands of feast and famine at their peak they support the greatest gatherings of wildlife found anywhere on earth
Example 1 of 10
Quote examples
Amber Rudd
British Politician
Famines are political. We all know that the immediate response to a famine must be food, aid, and shelter, but we should also look hard at what else can be done earlier on. It is not the lack of food but the fact that some people cannot get access to the food that causes the famine.
Quote examples
Don McCullin
British Photographer
I've spent most of my life embracing violence in wars and revolutions. Even a famine is a form of violence. Because I photograph people in peril, people in pain, people being executed in front of me, I find it very difficult to get my head around the art narrative of photography.
Quote examples
Leonard Cohen
Canadian Singer
We're in a world where there's famine and hunger and people are dodging bullets and having their nails pulled out in dungeons so it's very hard for me to place any high value on the work that I do to write a song. Yeah, I work hard but compared to what?
Quote examples
Flea
Australian Musician
All I knew about Ethiopia was from a few records that I like, as well as what I read about the famine. But you get there and it's another world. It's filled with art and music and poetry and intellectuals and writers - all kinds of people.
Quote examples
Muhammad Yunus
Economist
I was teaching in one of the universities while the country was suffering from a severe famine. People were dying of hunger, and I felt very helpless. As an economist, I had no tool in my tool box to fix that kind of situation.
Quote examples
Barack Obama
American President
This is the moment when we must come together to save this planet. Let us resolve that we will not leave our children a world where the oceans rise and famine spreads and terrible storms devastate our lands.
Quote examples
Margaret Sanger
American Activist
War, famine, poverty and oppression of the workers will continue while woman makes life cheap. They will cease only when she limits her reproductivity and human life is no longer a thing to be wasted.
Quote examples
Adam Schiff
American Politician
Americans are blessed with great plenty; we are a generous people and we have a moral obligation to assist those who are suffering from poverty, disease, war and famine.
Quote examples
Adrienne Rich
American Poet
They can rule the world while they can persuade us our pain belongs in some order is death by famine worse than death by suicide, than a life of famine and suicide?
Quote examples
William Shawcross
British Writer
Writing or talking about famine and the world's response to it is not very easy.
Quote examples
Amber Rudd
British Politician
Famines are political. We all know that the immediate response to a famine must be food, aid, and shelter, but we should also look hard at what else can be done earlier on. It is not the lack of food but the fact that some people cannot get access to the food that causes the famine.
Quote examples
Don McCullin
British Photographer
I've spent most of my life embracing violence in wars and revolutions. Even a famine is a form of violence. Because I photograph people in peril, people in pain, people being executed in front of me, I find it very difficult to get my head around the art narrative of photography.
Quote examples
Leonard Cohen
Canadian Singer
We're in a world where there's famine and hunger and people are dodging bullets and having their nails pulled out in dungeons so it's very hard for me to place any high value on the work that I do to write a song. Yeah, I work hard but compared to what?
Quote examples
Flea
Australian Musician
All I knew about Ethiopia was from a few records that I like, as well as what I read about the famine. But you get there and it's another world. It's filled with art and music and poetry and intellectuals and writers - all kinds of people.
Quote examples
Muhammad Yunus
Economist
I was teaching in one of the universities while the country was suffering from a severe famine. People were dying of hunger, and I felt very helpless. As an economist, I had no tool in my tool box to fix that kind of situation.
Quote examples
Barack Obama
American President
This is the moment when we must come together to save this planet. Let us resolve that we will not leave our children a world where the oceans rise and famine spreads and terrible storms devastate our lands.
Quote examples
Margaret Sanger
American Activist
War, famine, poverty and oppression of the workers will continue while woman makes life cheap. They will cease only when she limits her reproductivity and human life is no longer a thing to be wasted.
Quote examples
Adam Schiff
American Politician
Americans are blessed with great plenty; we are a generous people and we have a moral obligation to assist those who are suffering from poverty, disease, war and famine.
Quote examples
Adrienne Rich
American Poet
They can rule the world while they can persuade us our pain belongs in some order is death by famine worse than death by suicide, than a life of famine and suicide?
Quote examples
William Shawcross
British Writer
Writing or talking about famine and the world's response to it is not very easy.
Example 1 of 10
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