famine

famine
    n 1: an acute insufficiency [syn: {dearth}, {famine},
         {shortage}]
    2: a severe shortage of food (as through crop failure) resulting
       in violent hunger and starvation and death
    

Famine \Fam"ine\, n. [F. famine, fr. L. fames hunger; cf. Gr.
   ????? want, need, Skr. h[=a]ni loss, lack, h[=a] to leave.]
   General scarcity of food; dearth; a want of provisions;
   destitution. "Worn with famine." --Milton.
   [1913 Webster]

         There was a famine in the land.          --Gen. xxvi.
                                                  1.
   [1913 Webster]

   {Famine fever} (Med.), typhus fever.
      [1913 Webster]
    

Famine
The first mentioned in Scripture was so grievous as to compel
Abraham to go down to the land of Egypt (Gen. 26:1). Another is
mentioned as having occurred in the days of Isaac, causing him
to go to Gerar (Gen. 26:1, 17). But the most remarkable of all
was that which arose in Egypt in the days of Joseph, which
lasted for seven years (Gen. 41-45).

  Famines were sent as an effect of God's anger against a guilty
people (2 Kings 8:1, 2; Amos 8:11; Deut. 28:22-42; 2 Sam. 21:1;
2 Kings 6:25-28; 25:3; Jer. 14:15; 19:9; 42:17, etc.). A famine
was predicted by Agabus (Acts 11:28). Josephus makes mention of
the famine which occurred A.D. 45. Helena, queen of Adiabene,
being at Jerusalem at that time, procured corn from Alexandria
and figs from Cyprus for its poor inhabitants.
    

42 Moby Thesaurus words for "famine":
      absence, aridity, barrenness, beggary, birth control,
      contraception, dearth, defectiveness, deficiency, deficit,
      deprivation, destitution, drought, dry womb, dryness, exiguity,
      family planning, imperfection, impotence, impoverishment,
      incompleteness, ineffectualness, infecundity, infertility, lack,
      need, omission, paucity, planned parenthood, scarcity, shortage,
      shortcoming, shortfall, starvation, sterileness, sterility,
      unfertileness, unfruitfulness, unproductiveness, want, wantage,
      withered loins