S — Starkly to Starwort (Part 5 of 6)

1. To excite by sudden alarm, surprise, or apprehension; to frighten suddenly and not seriously; to alarm; to surprise.

The supposition, at least, that angels do sometimes assume bodies need not startle us.

2. To deter; to cause to deviate. [R.] Clarendon.

Syn. — To start; shock; fright; frighten; alarm.

Startle
(Star"tle), n. A sudden motion or shock caused by an unexpected alarm, surprise, or apprehension of danger.

After having recovered from my first startle, I was very well pleased with the accident.

Startlingly
(Star"tling*ly) adv. In a startling manner.

Startlish
(Star"tlish) a. Easily startled; apt to start; startish; skittish; — said especially of a hourse. [Colloq.]

Start-up
(Start"-up`) n.

1. One who comes suddenly into notice; an upstart. [Obs.] Shak.

2. A kind of high rustic shoe. [Obs.] Drayton.

A startuppe, or clownish shoe.

Start-up
(Start"-up`), a. Upstart. [R.] Walpole.

Starvation
(Star*va"tion) n. The act of starving, or the state of being starved.

This word was first used, according to Horace Walpole, by Henry Dundas, the first Lord Melville, in a speech on American affairs in 1775, which obtained for him the nickname of Starvation Dundas. "Starvation, we are also told, belongs to the class of 'vile compounds' from being a mongrel; as if English were not full of mongrels, and if it would not be in distressing straits without them." Fitzed. Hall.

Starve
(Starve) v. i. [imp. & p. p. Starved ; p. pr. & vb. n. Starving.] [OE. sterven to die, AS. steorfan; akin to D. sterven, G. sterben, OHG. sterban, Icel. starf labor, toil.]

1. To die; to perish. [Obs., except in the sense of perishing with cold or hunger.] Lydgate.

In hot coals he hath himself raked . . .
Thus starved this worthy mighty Hercules.

2. To perish with hunger; to suffer extreme hunger or want; to be very indigent.

Sometimes virtue starves, while vice is fed.

3. To perish or die with cold. Spenser.

Have I seen the naked starve for cold?

Starving with cold as well as hunger.

In this sense, still common in England, but rarely used of the United States.

Starve
(Starve), v. t.