v. t. & i. [ F. affamer, fr. L. ad + fames hunger. See Famish. ] To afflict with, or perish from, hunger. [ Obs. ] Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Starvation. Bp. Hall. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. sing. & pl. [ Written also Omish. ] (Eccl. Hist.) The Amish Mennonites. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

a. [ Written also Omish. ] (Eccl. Hist.) Of, pertaining to, or designating, the followers of Jacob Amman, a strict Mennonite of the 17th century, who even proscribed the use of buttons and shaving as “worldly conformity”. There are several branches of Amish Mennonites in the United States. A branch having particularly strict adherence to the Amish principles are called Old Order Amish [ Webster 1913 Suppl. +PJC ]

v. t. To famish; to starve. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Famished p. pr. & vb. n. Famishing. ] [ OE. famen; cf. OF. afamer, L. fames. See Famine, and cf. Affamish. ] 1. To starve, kill, or destroy with hunger. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To exhaust the strength or endurance of, by hunger; to distress with hanger. [ 1913 Webster ]

And when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread. Cen. xli. 55. [ 1913 Webster ]

The pains of famished Tantalus he'll feel. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To kill, or to cause to suffer extremity, by deprivation or denial of anything necessary. [ 1913 Webster ]

And famish him of breath, if not of bread. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To force or constrain by famine. [ 1913 Webster ]

He had famished Paris into a surrender. Burke. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. 1. To die of hunger; to starve. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To suffer extreme hunger or thirst, so as to be exhausted in strength, or to come near to perish. [ 1913 Webster ]

You are all resolved rather to die than to famish? Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To suffer extremity from deprivation of anything essential or necessary. [ 1913 Webster ]

The Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish. Prov. x. 3. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. State of being famished. [ 1913 Webster ]

prop. n. 1. (Sumerian mythology) A legendary king of Sumeria and the hero of famous Sumerian and Babylonian epics. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

2. The Epic of Gilgamesh, a long Babylonian epic written in cuneiform in the Sumerian language on clay tablets. Early versions of the written story date from 2000 B. C.; it is probably the first written story still in existence. A longer version was written in the Akkadian language, on 12 clay tablets found at Nineveh in the ruins of the library of Ashurbanipal, king of Assyria from 669 to 633 B. C. The story depicted the life and heroic deeds of the legendary Gilgamesh, apparently derived from stories about a real king of ancient Mesopotamia who lived around 2700 B. C. The story includes a tale of a great flood, which has some parallels to the biblical story of the flood survived by Noah. The Nineveh tablets name the author of that version of the story, a Shin-eqi-unninni. [ PJC ]

☞ The entire text may be found in:
The Epic of Gilgamesh
Translated by Maureen Gallery Kovacs
(Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1990)

and

Gilgamesh
Translated by John Maier and John Gardner
(New York: Vintage Press, 1981)

a. Somewhat lame. Wood. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ OE. squaimous, sweymous, probably from OE. sweem, swem, dizziness, a swimming in the head; cf. Icel. sveimr a bustle, a stir, Norw. sveim a hovering about, a sickness that comes upon one, Icel. svimi a giddiness, AS. swīma. The word has been perhaps confused with qualmish. Cf. Swim to be dizzy. ] Having a stomach that is easily turned or nauseated; hence, nice to excess in taste; fastidious; easily disgusted; apt to be offended at trifling improprieties. [ 1913 Webster ]

Quoth he, that honor's very squeamish
That takes a basting for a blemish. Hudibras. [ 1913 Webster ]

His muse is rustic, and perhaps too plain
The men of squeamish taste to entertain. Southern. [ 1913 Webster ]

So ye grow squeamish, Gods, and sniff at heaven. M. Arnold. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- Fastidious; dainty; overnice; scrupulous. See Fastidious. [ 1913 Webster ]

-- Squeam"ish*ly, adv. -- Squeam"ish*ness, n. [ 1913 Webster ]