What does famine mean in a sentence

If, in the face of what cannot be considered less than careless and inefficient agricultural practice, we have increased the wheat capacity of our land by 3. Though Lapland gives little scope for husbandry, a bad summer being commonly followed by a winter famine , it is richly furnished with much that is serviceable to man. After that the island was visited by a famine , which destroyed 95 00 people, or one-fifth of the total population.

Smallpox, famine , sheep disease, and the eruptions of and follow each other in terrible succession. At last, on the 15th of August , Antwerp was compelled by famine to capitulate. This simple process, applicable to such a variety of substances, is a valuable security against famine.

In a time of famine , a chief would declare the contents of the plantations to be common property. This movement of population took its first great impulse from the famine of and has continued ever since. But the potato famine and the repeal of the Corn Laws, occurring almost simultaneously, caused an immediate and startling diminution in the number of smaller holdings.

On the occasion of famine the druids advised that the son of a sinless married couple should be brought to Ireland to be killed in front of Tara and his blood mixed with the soil of Tara. Spenser, an eye-witness, says famine slew far more than the sword. A frost which penetrated deep caused the famine of Between and there were six seasons of dearth, approaching in some places to famine. There was no margin, and when the " precarious exotic " failed an awful famine was the result.

One good result of the famine was thoroughly to awaken Englishmen to their duty towards Ireland. The famine , emigration and the new poor law nearly got rid of starvation, but the people never became frankly loyal, feeling that they owed more to their own importunity and to their own misfortunes than to the wisdom of their rulers.

A famine was feared, and in the west there was much real distress. When Lord Beaconsfield appealed to the country in March , he reminded the country in a letter to the viceroy, the duke of Marlborough, that there was a party in Ireland " attempting to sever the constitutional tie which unites it to Great Britain in that bond which has favoured the power and prosperity of both," and that such an agitation might in the end be " scarcely less disastrous than pestilence and famine.

It is significant that Jacob's body is taken to Palestine, but the brethren return to Egypt; in spite of a possible allusion to the famine in v. From to there was a terrible repetition of what happened after the Peace of Brtigny; famine , pestilence, extortions and, later, the aristocratic revolt of the Praguerie, completed the ruin of the country. Richelieu went so far as to make poverty systematic and use famine as a means of government.

The latter labored at re-establishing order in fiscal affairs; and various measures like the impost of the dixiine upon all property save that of the clergy, together with the end of the corn famine , sufficed to restore a certain amount of well-being.

The district suffered very severely from the famine of To this petition Ambrose replied in a letter to Valentinian, arguing that the devoted worshippers of idols had often been forsaken by their deities; that the native valour of the Roman soldiers had gained their victories, and not the pretended influence of pagan priests; that these idolatrous worshippers requested for themselves what they refused to Christians; that voluntary was more honourable than constrained virginity; that as the Christian ministers declined to receive temporal emoluments, they should also be denied to pagan priests; that it was absurd to suppose that God would inflict a famine upon the empire for neglecting to support a religious system contrary to His will as revealed in the Scriptures; that the whole process of nature encouraged innovations, and that all nations had permitted them, even in religion; that heathen sacrifices were offensive to Christians; and that it was the duty of a Christian prince to suppress pagan ceremonies.

In plague, following on drought and famine , swept away thousands of conquered and conquerors alike. The new ministry, confronted by a rapidly spreading revolu. It suffered severely from the famine of The manuscript, discovered by Edward Pococke the Orientalist, and preserved in the Bodleian Library, contains a vivid description of a famine caused, during the author's residence in Egypt, by the Nile failing to overflow its banks.

Bhaunagar suffered terribly from the famine of A province subject to such conditions can hardly be free from famine or scarcity for any length of time; accordingly it was visited by two famines, one of unprecedented severity, and one scarcity, in the decade Half the population of his planet had been decimated by famine and war, and for all he knew, his intended was among them.

There were no signs of famine or diseases that oft struck Landis, no fights in the streets for a higher position in the warlord-king's court or among his chosen men, no brawls over who would mate with a woman of age.

The main fear inducers seem to be the R. The propertyless bore almost the whole brunt of the famine brought about by their own improvident measures. All these ecological factors lead to severe constraints and increase famine vulnerability at alarming rates. Seven years of bumper crops are going to be followed by seven years of famine.

We affirm the God-given dignity of every person, so we are moved to action by poverty and oppression and famine and disease. Around seven million people were affected by the famine in Libyans began flooding into the country, not as conquerors but apparently as refugees fleeing famine in north Africa.

You will be helping to alleviate human famine by taking less out of the World's finite resources. He opposed Peel's free trade policies, especially after the later repealed the Corn Laws in order to relieve the famine in Ireland.

April State of disaster declared as worsening food shortages threaten famine. Of those who survived the famine , many were forced to emigrate to greener pastures. In , Michael Buerk's report on the Ethiopian famine shocked the world into action. That there has been a lack of serious analysis of the Ukrainian famine on the left is an understatement.

After all, the impending famine in Africa opens up a new market to sustain the multi-billion dollar US biotechnology industry. The Irish famine of gave him the excuse for which he was looking. Russians dead or dying in the terrible famine of This was vital for survival with the potato famine which affected the UK in the s.

It was hardly inspiration to yield to a famine after the situation had become quite insupportable. Those affected by the famine and forced to move southward are Arab nomads and other pastoral tribes. This was famine land, yet he didn't get possessive about the wells being his by right of hard work! Do they just ignore the extreme hunger pains or do they just have a biological predisposition to enjoy famine. The tower was built as a famine relief project c.

But a secret report predicts a looming catastrophe - a world riven with water wars, famine and anarchy. Unscathed by civil strife, war or famine , Zambia's capital city seems as serene as any on the continent. A regional famine early warning unit reports that up to 3. By January consensus was again stymied, heralding three more years of unbroken famine. On one occasion, for instance, Heraclea was afflicted with famine , and the Pythian priestess at Delphi, bribed by Heraclides, assured his inquiring townsmen that the dearth would be stayed if they granted a golden crown to that philosopher.

In the meantime the colony at Buenos Aires had been dragging on a miserable existence, and after terrible sufferings from famine and from the ceaseless attacks of the Indians, the remaining settlers abandoned the place and made their way up the river first to Corpus Christi, then to Asuncion. But when at the very last extremity through famine , a tempestuous flood enabled the vessels of Orange to reach Leiden, and the investing force was driven to retreat October 3, 1 On the 24th the city, reduced by famine , capitulated on favorable terms.

Manin, Pepa and a few others were excluded from the amnesty and went into exile. An inundation of the Tiber swept away a large part of Rome, destroying fields, drowning cattle, and causing a famine ; then came earthquakes, fires and plagues of insects; the soldiers in Britain tried to induce their general Statius Priscus to proclaim himself emperor; finally, the Parthians under Vologaeses III.

After suffering much from famine and disease, Pizarro resolved to leave, and embarked the survivors in small vessels, but outside the harbour they met a ship which proved to be that of Martin Fernandez Enciso, Ojeda's partner, coming with provisions and reinforcements.

The colony which he afterwards took out from Spain was a complete failure, and is only remembered now from the name of " Port Famine ," which Cavendish gave to the site at which he found the starving remnant of Sarmiento's settlers.

The consequence is that the peasantry are constantly in a state bordering on destitution, and exposed to the horrors of famine , like those which visited them in and , and threatened in The oligarchical party considered it a disgrace to obey a simple boyar; conspiracies were frequent, the rural districts were desolated by famine and plague, great bands of armed brigands roamed about the country committing all manner of atrocities, the Cossacks on the frontier were restless, and the government showed itself incapable of maintaining order.

This, according to Westermarck, is the central idea of human sacrifice: the victim is substituted for the sacrificer, to deliver him from perils by disease, famine or, more indefinitely, from the wrath of the god in general. Here at early morning on the 21st of December the emperor offers sacrifice on an open altar to Shang-ti, and at periods of drought or famine presents prayers for relief to the same supreme deity.

According to the traditional account, when Greece was threatened with famine , the Delphic oracle ordered firstfruits to be brought to Athens from all parts of the country, which were to be offered by the Athenians to the goddess Deo on behalf of all the contributors.

Under the second procurator Tiberius Alexander, an apostate Jew of Alexandria, nephew of Philo, the Jews suffered from a great famine and were relieved by the queen of Adiabene, a proselyte to Judaism, who purchased corn from Egypt. The famine affected all alike - the populace, who desired peace, and the Zealots, who were determined to fight to the end. Threatened with famine and with destruction from hostile Indians, the entire colony left for England on the 19th of June on Sir Francis Drake's fleet.

A disastrous famine ravaged the land for three long years, and when Yahweh was consulted the reply came that there was " blood upon Saul and upon his house because he put the Gibeonites to death. During the famine of he enforced on landowners "the obligation of relieving the poor" and especially the metayers dependent upon them, and organized in every province ateliers and bureaux de charite for providing work for the able-bodied and relief for the infirm, while at the same time he condemned indiscriminate charity.

Severe as were the losses in flocks and herds from these imported diseases, they were eclipsed by the ravages of the mysterious potato blight, which, first appearing in , pervaded the whole of Europe, and in Ireland especially proved the precursor of famine and pestilence.

The two meteorological events of the decade which will probably live longest in the recollection were, however, the terrible drought of , resulting in a fodder famine in the succeeding winter, and the severe frost of ten weeks' duration at the beginning of In there was pestilence from Flanders to Bohemia: in there was famine in Lorraine. She was already the home of the Cluniac movement, the centre from which radiated the truce of God, the chosen place of chivalry; she could supply a host of feudal nobles, somewhat loosely tied to their place in society, and ready to break loose for a great enterprise; she had suffered from battle and murder, pestilence and famine , from which any escape was welcome.

On the other hand, the vassal was not bound to render service, unless he were paid for his service; and it was only famine , or Saracen devastation, which freed the king from the obligation of paying his men.

The conditions of the surrender were all violated - the cadi Ibn Djahhaff burnt alive, a vast number of the citizens who had escaped death by famine slaughtered, and the possessions divided among the Campeador's companions. The BengalNagpur line has now opened up the eastern portion of the country, bringing it into direct connexion with Calcutta; and a new branch of the Indian Midland, from Saugor through Damoh, has been partly constructed as a famine work.

While bishop of Nancy he met Marshal MacMahon, then governor-general of Algeria, who in offered him the see of Algiers, just raised to an archbishopric.

Contact with the natives during the famine caused Lavigerie to entertain exaggerated hopes for their general conversion, and his enthusiasm was such that he offered to resign his archbishopric in order to devote himself entirely to the missions. It was indeed by no means impossible that Jerusalem might have been altogether undone by the famine caused by the locusts; and so the conception of these visitants as the destroying army, executing Yahweh's final judgment, is really much more natural than appears to us at first sight, and does not need to be explained away by allegory.

During the famine of this company rose in revolt, sacked the houses of the rich, invaded the public palace, drove from the council of fifteen the four members of the twelve and the three of the nine, and replaced them by seven tatterdemalions. Some curious traits are recorded of this life - one being that in the terrible famine year of Malplaquet a hundred francs a year were added to the usual boarding expenses, and yet the boys had to eat pain bis.

Shortly after his accession he was threatened with invasion by Cambyses, the Persian conqueror of Egypt, but according to his own account destroyed the fleet sent by the invader up the Nile, while as we learn from Herodotus the land-force succumbed to famine see Cambyses. In the autumn of the failure of the potato crop in Ireland threatened a famine , and convinced Sir Robert Peel that all restrictions on the importation of food must be at once suspended.

And as the motive power of this formidable mechanism of force they could rely on the native suspiciousness of the Parisian populace, exaggerated now into madness by famine and the menace of foreign invasion. Enghien then decided to make use of the Glotter Tal to interrupt altogether this already unsatisfactory line of supply, and thus to force the Bavarians either to attack him at a serious disadvantage, or to retreat across the hills with the loss of their artillery and baggage and the disintegration of their army by famine and desertion.

He also made himself very popular in Paris by his large gifts to the poor in time of famine , and by throwing open the gardens of the Palais Royal to the people. Carlo was successful in repressing brigands, but had to deal with much distress from famine. The result was civil war and famine. In he attacked a caravan in which the sister of Saladin was travelling, thus violating a four years' truce, which, after some two years' skirmishing, Saladin and Raymund of Tripoli had made in the previous year owing to the general prevalence of famine.

The fiscal system was remodelled, and the district has since enjoyed a greater degree of prosperity only interrupted by famine. In the depression between the Bureya range and the coast ranges it suffers greatly from the heavy July and August rains, and from inundations, while on the lower Amur the agriculturists barely maintain themselves by growing cereals in clearances on the slopes of the hills, so that the settlements on the lower Amur and Usuri continually require help from government to save them from famine.

In Florence was again stricken with famine , followed the next year by the most terrible plague it had ever experienced, which carried off three-fifths of the population according to now threatened Florence in the person of Castruccio p Villani. The sufferings from famine within the city were now very great, and an increasingly large part of the people favoured surrender. The famine of was severely felt. In Florence encamped her forces on three sides of the distressed city, which at last, reduced to extremity by famine , was compelled to surrender on the 8th of June Then the sword bent towards the earth, the sky darkened, thunder pealed, lightning flashed, and the whole world was wasted by famine , bloodshed and pestilence.

In B. With new deities came new modes of worship: the graecus ritus, in which, contrary to Roman usage, the worshipper's head was unveiled, and the lectisternium, an elaborate form of the "banquet of the gods. Stoppage of trade, absence of work in a population of which more than half had been living on foreign revenues of the knights , and famine , followed the defeat of Bonaparte at the Nile, and the failure of his plans to make Malta a centre of French trade.

The resulting reaction caused a regrettable loss of life in the Madras and Bombay famine of ; and the Famine Commission of , followed by those of and , laid down the principle that every possible life must be saved, but that the wages on relief works must be so regulated in relation to the market rate of wages as not to undermine the independence of the people.

The experience gained in the great famines of and has been garnered by these commissions, and stored up in the " famine codes" of each separate province, where rules are provided for the treatment of famine directly a crop failure is seen to be probable. As a result of the severe famine of , Lord Lytton's government instituted a form of insurance against famine known as the Famine Insurance Grant. Famine forced the burghers to partial obedience, and Frederick held a victorious diet at Roncaglia.

When this happens there is great suffering from famine , for wheat is the crop upon which the people principally depend, though rye, buckwheat and oats are also cultivated.

The famine was perhaps interpreted by the Zealots as a punishment for their acquiescence in the rule of an apostate. In it was ravaged by a famine and pestilence, which destroyed a great proportion of its inhabitants, - according to some accounts, nearly one-half. A large public park, opened in , was laid out as a relief work for unemployed operatives during the cotton famine of the earlier part of the decade.

Desertion, pestilence and famine added to the usual horrors of a siege, and at length on the ninth day of the fourth month , a breach was made in the walls. Epidemics of cholera, which occurred during the years of scarcity and famine , also swept away large numbers. Famine , the avarice of the rich, and the necessity of providing tribute had brought the humbler classes to the lowest straits.

In the patience of a Curie, in the enlightenment of a Faraday, a Rutherford, a Pasteur, a Nightingale, and all other apostles of light and cleanliness, rather than of a woebegone godliness, we shall find final deliverance from plague, pestilence, and famine. We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe. If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.

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Word in Definition. Princeton's WordNet 0. Wiktionary 0. Webster Dictionary 0. Freebase 0. Chambers 20th Century Dictionary 0. Matched Categories Calamity Lack. How to pronounce famine? Alex US English. David US English. Mark US English. Daniel British. Libby British. Mia British. Karen Australian. Hayley Australian. Natasha Australian.

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