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:
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
The dying emperor received into his emaciate, feeble arms the new bride who had been selected for him, Marva Matweowna, and after a few weeks of languor and depression died.
From The Empire of Russia by Abbott, John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot)
His step became feeble, his form emaciate, his countenance haggard.
From Ferdinand De Soto, The Discoverer of the Mississippi American Pioneers and Patriots by Abbott, John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot)
And men and dog alike seemed direly thin and emaciate.
From Martin Conisby's Vengeance by Farnol, Jeffery
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)
Nicaragua's Ministry of Health released an image of an emaciated Rivera lying in a hospital bed being ventilated via a tube through his neck.
From BBC ● May 31, 2026
Officers searched him and found two emaciated and potentially sedated orange-fronted parakeets — the victims of an alleged botched smuggling attempt — stuffed in his underwear, according to court documents.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 30, 2026
An emaciated and apparently blind man stands in the snow at the Nazi concentration camp of Flossenbuerg: the image seems real at first but is part of a wave of AI-generated content about the Holocaust.
From Barron's ● Jan. 27, 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
Now their only guide was an emaciated corpse lady with serious self-esteem issues.
From "The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan
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
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
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.
