cadaverous
Gaunt and pallid
Cadaverous describes someone or something resembling a corpse—pale, gaunt, and deathly in appearance.
The word suggests extreme thinness, pallor, and an unsettling lifelessness: His cadaverous face emerged from the shadows.
It applies to people who look gravely ill or emaciated, and extends to settings with a deathly atmosphere: the cadaverous light of the morgue.
Abnormally wasted from hunger
- skeletalOf or like bones
- bonyThin, with protruding skeleton
- haggardExhausted in appearance
- sunkenDescended beneath water level
wasted · pinched · angular · rawboned · drawn · wizened · shriveled · thin
Pale, grayish-white
- wanPale and unwell-looking
- pallidUnhealthily lacking color
- ghostlyResembling a specter
- paleLacking color intensity
sallow · bloodless · colorless · chalky · waxy · deathly pale · gray · livid
Facility housing corpses
- embalmedPreserved a corpse chemically
- deceasedNo longer living
- funerealGloomily solemn in manner
- casketBurial container
shroud · postmortem · morgue · autopsy · crypt · mausoleum · interment · exhumed
In poor health
- infirmWeak in body
- debilitatedMade weak or infirm
- feebleWeak and ineffective
- frailWeak and breakable
unhealthy · wasting · weakened · failing · moribund · dying · terminal · consumptive
Fascinated by death grotesquely
- morbidUnhealthily drawn to darkness
- deathlyResembling the grave
- grimHarsh and foreboding
- gruesomeCausing horror and disgust
gothic · sinister · lugubrious · sepulchral · ominous · foreboding · chilling · creepy
emaciated
Abnormally wasted from hunger
sunken · wasted · pinched · angular · rawboned · drawn · wizened · shriveled · thin · scrawny
ashen
Pale, grayish-white
pale · sallow · bloodless · colorless · chalky · waxy · deathly pale · gray · livid · blanched
mortuary
Facility housing corpses
casket · shroud · postmortem · morgue · autopsy · crypt · mausoleum · interment · exhumed · sepulchral
ailing
In poor health
- infirmWeak in body
- debilitatedMade weak or infirm
- feebleWeak and ineffective
frail · unhealthy · wasting · weakened · failing · moribund · dying · terminal · consumptive · tubercular
ghoulish
Fascinated by death grotesquely
gruesome · gothic · sinister · lugubrious · sepulchral · ominous · foreboding · chilling · creepy · grisly