emaciated
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of emaciated
Explanation
Someone who is dangerously skinny and skeletal-looking can be described as emaciated. It's probably how you'd start to look after a few weeks in the wilderness with only berries and bugs for dinner. The adjective emaciated evolved from the Latin emaciatus, meaning to “make lean, waste away.” An emaciated person or animal isn't just thin. They're bony, gaunt, and most likely undernourished, often from illness. So if an emaciated stray cat shows up on your doorstep, give it a bowl of milk and maybe pay a visit to the vet.
Vocabulary lists containing emaciated
List 3
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A Long Walk to Water
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The Hunger Games
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Emaciated, and weakened by another pregnancy, she walked five days to Mogadishu.
From Seattle Times • Jun. 7, 2022
Dennis the Menace > Emaciated Man Seethes: After Dennis blurts out, “Jeepers, you sure are fat, Mister Wilson,” Martha puts her husband on a no-carb diet.
From Washington Post • Nov. 11, 2021
Emaciated and traumatised, he is being treated at the single hospital serving the half million inhabitants of Masisi territory, about a thousand miles east of Kinshasa, the capital.
From The Guardian • Apr. 3, 2018
Emaciated, traumatized, looking as haunted as a figure in a Munch painting, Marian disembarks slowly from a plane and begins what will be a long journey home.
From New York Times • Oct. 14, 2015
Emaciated by prolonged want,—naked, filthy, hungry, he came as he was.
From The Parables of Our Lord by Arnot, William
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
