emaciate
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
Other Word Forms
- emaciation noun
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.
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)
Chisca, the chieftain, was far advanced in years, a feeble, emaciate old man of very diminutive stature.
From Ferdinand De Soto, The Discoverer of the Mississippi American Pioneers and Patriots 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)
Napoleon was pale and emaciate from the toils of his batteries at Toulon, and from his sleepless exertions in fortifying the coast.
From Harper's New Monthly Magazine No. XVI.?September, 1851?Vol. III. by Various
He retired a fugitive with eight thousand men in his train, ragged, emaciate and mutilated.
From The Empire of Austria; Its Rise and Present Power by Abbott, John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot)
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.
