The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

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]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

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

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

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



Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary:

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.