sallow

¹ American  

[sal-oh] / ˈsæl oʊ /

adjective

sallower, sallowest

1. of a sickly, yellowish or lightish brown color.

   sallow cheeks; a sallow complexion.

   Synonyms:

   jaundiced, bilious

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verb (used with object)

1. to make sallow.

sallow ² American  

[sal-oh] / ˈsæl oʊ /

noun

British.

1. any of several shrubby Old World willows, especially Salix atrocinerea or the pussy willow, S. caprea.

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sallow ¹ British  

/ ˈsæləʊ /

adjective

1. (esp of human skin) of an unhealthy pale or yellowish colour

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verb

1. (tr) to make sallow

sallow ² British  

/ ˈsæləʊ /

noun

1. any of several small willow trees, esp the Eurasian Salix cinerea ( common sallow ), which has large catkins that appear before the leaves

2. a twig or the wood of any of these trees

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Other Word Forms

• sallowness
  noun
• sallowish
  adjective
• sallowy
  adjective
• sallowly
  adverb

Etymology

Origin of sallow¹

First recorded before 1000; Middle English sal(o)we, Old English salo; cognate with Old Norse sǫlr “yellow”; compare French sale “dirty” (from Germanic )

Origin of sallow²

before 900; Middle English; Old English sealh; cognate with Old High German salaha, Latin salix

Explanation

Sallow means unhealthy in appearance — often yellow in color — and is almost invariably used to describe someone's complexion. His smile was as engaging as ever, but from his sallow complexion, I knew he was sick. Usually we say that when someone is sick they turn "green." You could also say their skin takes on a sallow look, and you'd mean the same thing. Sallow also describes the way someone looks if they have lost blood or are pale from fever. This word comes from Germanic roots meaning "dusky" or "dirty."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

sallow sallower sallowest

When they film themselves preening on their phones, with the images projected onto the giant mirrors, Claire and Solange use filters that turn their sallow, pinched faces into plump-lipped, high-cheekboned ones that suggest Kim Kardashian.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 28, 2026

The canvas, 5 feet square, imposes the sentiment in a stack of crisp white words over snow-covered mountain scenery, the sky a sallow yellow fading upward into bilious green.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 20, 2023

The yellow-orange stain of surgical antiseptic is sallow on my skin, accented by the remains of purple felt-tip-pen markings that are not hypothetical indicators this time.

From Washington Post ● Jul. 17, 2022

She glanced up at the sallow light of the former prison cell and, with a little laugh, quoted me a snatch of Heidegger: “Where there is danger, there grows what saves.”

From New York Times ● Jul. 15, 2022

One side of the person's face was purple, and bulged out in a shapeless way, shading to green along the edges, and then to a sallow yellow.

From "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath

His. long lank hair is still brown, makes him look like a smaller, sallower edition of the late Sir Henry Irving.

From Time Magazine Archive

Maybe it was the light, but already I looked sallower, unhealthy.

From "Twilight" by Stephenie Meyer

Her face was sallower, and there was a long scar, partly hidden by the hair, across her forehead and temple; but that was not the change.

From "1984" by George Orwell

Being first cousins they had decided, or rather Holly had, to have no children; and, though a little sallower, she had kept her looks, her slimness, and the colour of her dark hair.

From To Let by Galsworthy, John

He had hardly changed at all—a little sallower, a little dryer, a trifle less like a gentleman.

From Esther Waters by Moore, George (George Augustus)

It was quite unaccountable that Mrs. Deane, the thinnest and sallowest of all the Miss Dodsons, should have had this child, who might have been taken for Mrs. Tulliver's any day.

From The Mill on the Floss by Eliot, George