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:
Very hospitably they received the worn, emaciate, and ragged wanderers.
From The Adventures of the Chevalier De La Salle and His Companions, in Their Explorations of the Prairies, Forests, Lakes, and Rivers, of the New World, and Their Interviews with the Savage Tribes, Two Hundred Years Ago by John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot) Abbott
The features become sharper, and sometimes the whole body begins to emaciate, while the pulse quickens.
From Fruits of Philosophy A Treatise on the Population Question by Charles Knowlton
At last he began to emaciate and look haggard.
From History of Circumcision from the Earliest Times to the Present Moral and Physical Reasons for its Performance by Peter Charles Remondino
It was on the 25th of April, 1526, that the pale and emaciate adventurer, accompanied by a few followers, embarked on board a brigantine in the anchorage at Truxillo.
From Hernando Cortez Makers of History by John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot) Abbott
They thought they must emaciate their bodies with watching, fasting, toil, and hunger.
From Luther Examined and Reexamined A Review of Catholic Criticism and a Plea for Revaluation by W. H. T. (William Herman Theodore) Dau
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
In October, a Tijuana man was indicted after officers found two emaciated and potentially sedated orange-fronted parakeets stuffed in his underwear.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 25, 2026
And while Rahman, 60, has on occasion been the de-facto chair of an emaciated BNP when his mother was jailed and more recently when she was ill, he's largely seen as an untested leader.
From BBC ● Feb. 13, 2026
The image was of two emaciated, impoverished South Asian children.
From BBC ● Feb. 2, 2026
A glance at his emaciated body,jutting out at harsh angles from under the sheets, testified to the contrary.
From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand
All those terrible yellow toxins, wizening his knees, slackening his tendons, emaciating his calves.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 1, 2011
A lipoma, or fatty tumor, in the subcutaneous tissue, may go on increasing to huge bulk while the body is steadily emaciating.
From Special Report on Diseases of Cattle by United States. Bureau of Animal Industry
After an emaciating period he began once more to stouten.
From The Card, a Story of Adventure in the Five Towns by Arnold Bennett
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 T. Phelan
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.
