the brink of starving to death

line / level / beam

food, dietary provisions

to starve / to starve to death / to die from hunger/starvation

starvation / death from starvation

to give out, to run short

insufficiency, shortage, deficiency, lack / dissatisfaction

insufficient / unsatisfactory

he / distal demonstrative, something far off removed from both speaker and listener: that / boyfriend

distal demonstrative, something far off removed from both speaker and listener: that, yon / particularly, male personal third person pronoun: he / by extension from he: boyfriend