Starve may often be used idiomatically or figuratively, but it still has a connotation (if not implication) of resulting in death. Dehydrate simply doesn't have the same emphasis. To me, it just means to be in need of water, not at the risk of death necessarily.-Klaivas- wrote:"Starve to death" is to "starve" is to "be hungry" as "die of dehydration" is to "dehydrate" is to "be thirsty".Nadreck wrote:Also, why does English have "starve" = to die of hunger, but no word for to die of thirst?
Maybe it's because dehydrate is often used passively.
They starved as opposed to They were dehydrated.
Then again, making both active still doesn't give dehydration the same ring of death.
They starved versus The heat dehydrated them.
The first, at least to me, still implies death, while the second doesn't, just a crisis.
EDIT: I wish there was a word for this feeling I get where you feel lost, but at the same time know exactly where you are (and I don't mean disillusionment or any thing like that; it's a good feeling and I mean the lost-ish-ness literally). It's like dazzled but with a dash of overwelmed at the same time.
Dazzle-welmed?