Starve Someone Into Doing vs. Starve Someone To Do
Oxford directly documents starve + person + into + -ing for coercing an action by deprivation. The cited entry does not license person + to-infinitive as the parallel complement, and ordinary senses of starve remain separate.
Use “starve someone into doing something” for the documented coercive construction; do not infer “starve someone to do” as an equivalent complement.
Key details
Choose the right form
| Meaning / structure | Pattern | Decision |
|---|---|---|
| coerce someone by deprivation into an action | starve + object + into + -ing | Use the directly documented construction. |
| ordinary literal or figurative senses of starve | choose the structure required by that sense | Do not force the coercive pattern onto unrelated uses. |
| object + to-infinitive as an equivalent coercive complement | starve + object + to do | Do not infer this from the reviewed evidence. |
Quick tests
Coercive-construction test
Does “starve” mean force a person or group into an action by withholding food, money, or resources?
If yes: Use “starve + object + into + -ing.”
If no: Use the construction appropriate to the ordinary literal or figurative sense instead.
Caveat: This page supports the documented “into + -ing” coercive construction; it does not license object + to-infinitive as an equivalent.
Examples
The negotiators tried to starve the other side into accepting the terms.
The object is followed by “into” plus an -ing form in the documented coercive pattern.
They hoped to starve the group into changing its position.
“Into changing” expresses the action produced by coercive deprivation.
For the coercive sense, use “starve someone into doing” rather than assuming “starve someone to do” is the parallel complement.
The reviewed source directly supports the into + -ing construction.
Further guidance
Boundary
Starve also has ordinary literal and figurative senses, so not every use belongs to the into + -ing construction.
Construction
Oxford directly records “starve somebody into something/into doing something” for forcing action by withholding food or money.
Decision
Use “starve someone into doing something” for the documented coercive construction; do not infer “starve someone to do” as an equivalent complement.
Sources and evidence
Sources are shown with the role they play in this guide. Historical or style-sensitive claims are kept within the evidence boundary described above.
- starve into doing — Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (opens in a new tab)Oxford University Press · Oxford learner-dictionary construction evidence for starve somebody into doing something