emaciate
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of emaciate
1640–50; < Latin ēmaciātus, wasted away, equivalent to ē- e- 1 + maciātus, past participle of maciāre to produce leanness ( maci ( ēs ) leanness + -ātus -ate 1 )
Explanation
To emaciate is to make someone extremely thin or very weak. A serious illness can often emaciate a person, leaving them gaunt and frail. The verb emaciate is much less common than its related adjective, emaciated. Both stem from the Latin emaciare, "make lean, cause to waste away." Whenever a person has become malnourished in a way that's evident just from looking at them, you can use this word: "The ravages of the Irish potato famine emaciated the starving people all across the country, eventually causing a million deaths."
Vocabulary lists containing emaciate
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.
See Examples For:
Her son, burning with fever and emaciate from grief and fatigue, mounted the box behind in the disguise of a footman.
From Hortense Makers of History Series by Abbott, John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot)
As the fugitives from France, emaciate, pale, and woe-stricken, with tattered and dusty garb, recited in England, Switzerland, and Germany the horrid story of the massacre, the hearts of their auditors were frozen with horror.
From Henry IV, Makers of History by Abbott, John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot)
On the following morning the Austrian army, emaciate, humiliated, and dejected, defiled from the gates of Mantua to throw down their arms at the feet of the triumphant Republicans.
From Harper's New Monthly Magazine, vol 1-98, 1850-1899 None by Harper, Various (magazine)
Her cheeks were pale and emaciate, and her forced smile only proclaimed more loudly the grief which was consuming her heart.
From Louis XIV. Makers of History Series by Abbott, John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot)
With an eager gaze, she fixed her eye upon her pale and wasted cheek and her emaciate frame, and the dreadful truth, with the suddenness of a revelation, burst upon her.
From Madame Roland, Makers of History by Abbott, John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot)
The United States had called for Rivera's release after the government published photos of the visibly emaciated detainee hooked up to a ventilator.
From Barron's ● Jun. 8, 2026
The image was of two emaciated, impoverished South Asian children.
From BBC ● Feb. 2, 2026
“Many of the surviving horses were visibly emaciated and in poor health and would not have survived without intervention,” according to the release.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 22, 2026
Oli Barrington, a trustee at the exotic animal charity, said the dogs, who were found emaciated, were now in a "comfortable, safe and recovering from the ordeal".
From BBC ● Jan. 11, 2026
One reporter who spotted Guiteau at police headquarters after the shooting described him as “a pale, emaciated, small man, with the appearance of an insane person.”
From "Ambushed!" by Gail Jarrow
All those terrible yellow toxins, wizening his knees, slackening his tendons, emaciating his calves.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 1, 2011
The agitators proclaim that their number in Parliament has diminished, and that they have lost cities and counties, because the constituency has decreased under the "emaciating influence of the registration law."
From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 56, Number 350, December 1844 by Various
That their plunge might stimulate Methuen to burn his boots and brave the turgid waters of the Modder, was the fervent wish of Kimberley at the end of fourteen weeks of irksome, emaciating duress.
From The Siege of Kimberley by Phelan, T.
After an emaciating period he began once more to stouten.
From The Card, a Story of Adventure in the Five Towns by Bennett, Arnold
That highly-blessed lady is always emaciating herself with the austerest of penances!
From The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 3 Books 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 by Ganguli, Kisari Mohan
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.
