famine
part of speech
noun (a famine, famines; famine — uncountable)
meaning for a pupil
A time when a large number of people in a place do not have enough food, often for months, and many may become ill or die. tree →
sense in the lessons
In history lessons pupils learn about famines such as the Great Famine in Ireland, caused when the potato crop failed; in geography famine follows drought, war or crop failure; charities send help. Phrases: «famine relief», «suffer from famine», «a time of famine».
examples
- The potato famine in Ireland forced many people to leave. tree →
- Drought led to famine in the region. tree →
- Charities sent food during the famine. tree →
- People ate grass in the worst days of the famine. tree →
- War can cause famine when farmers cannot plant crops. tree →
- The story is about a family that survived a famine. tree →
- A Grasshopper, perishing with famine, passed by and earnestly begged for a little food. tree →
note
Countable and uncountable. Not the same as «hunger» (the feeling of wanting food) — a famine is a huge, long food shortage for a whole area. Opposite in feeling: feast, plenty.
In the corpora
- People believed Heaven gave a good ruler the right to rule, and took it away when floods, famine and rebellion came.
- Mao's Great Leap Forward caused a terrible famine, and his Cultural Revolution closed schools and hurt millions.
- Pharaoh dreamed of seven fat cows and seven thin cows; Joseph explained this meant seven years of plenty, then seven of famine.
- Pharaoh put Joseph in charge of storing grain, and he saved Egypt and many nations from famine.
- And there was a famine in the land, beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «famine» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.