inanition

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)The act of removing the contents of something; the state of being empty.

   “Secondary causes of sleepe are divers; as excessive labour, agitation of the body, repletion, as by excesse of meates or drinkes, inanition, as by Copulation and many more of this kinde, which doe so waste the spirits, that of necessity, there behooveth a cessation to be for a time, that new spirits may be recollected for refreshing of it [...]”

   “1643, William Slatyer, The Compleat Christian, London, for the author, The Second Part of the Catechism, Section 5, p. 110, 3. What meane you by Incarnation? His inanition of himselfe, and as it were debasing of himselfe in respect of his majesty of divinity, thereby to put on humanity.”

   “We experience some sensations, and perform some actions before our nativity; the sensations of cold and warmth, agitation and rest, fulness and inanition, are instances of the former [...]”

2. (countable, uncountable)A state of advanced lack of adequate nutrition, food, or water or a physiological inability to utilize them, with resulting weakness.

   “It may be reasonably inferred that our baby will first expire of inanition, as being the frailest member of our circle; and that our twins will follow next in order.”

   “The Diet of the street-children is in some cases an alternation of surfeit and inanition [...]”

   “1955, Samuel Beckett and Patrick Bowles (translators), Molloy by Samuel Beckett, Part I, in Three Novels, New York: Grove, 1959, p. 202, And I who a fortnight before would joyfully have reckoned how long I could survive on the provisions that remained, probably with reference to the question of calories and vitamins, and established in my head a series of menus asymptotically approaching nutritional zero, was now content to note feebly that I should soon be dead of inanition.”

3. (countable, uncountable)A spiritual emptiness or lack of purpose or will to live, akin to nausea in existentialist philosophy.

   “There bending over her, with eyes bathed in tears, she watched the progress of her beloved Rosilia's melancholy disorder; she beheld her, pale, exhausted, either in listless inanition, or haunted with the dreadful idea that mental derangement or death would terminate her sufferings!”

   “I had forced into his hand the means to carry on decently the serious business of life, to get food, drink, and shelter of the customary kind while his wounded spirit, like a bird with a broken wing, might hop and flutter into some hole, to die quietly of inanition there.”

   “"Well, who is; but who has good music, and amuses people on Sunday evenings, when the whole of New York is dying of inanition."”

   “It was a small celebration: not much money to spend, and an enormous inanition eating away the faith.”