emaciate
Become skeletal thin
To emaciate is to make extremely thin and weak, typically through starvation, disease, or neglect.
The word almost always appears as the adjective emaciated: emaciated prisoners, an emaciated stray dog.
The condition suggests not just thinness but visible wasting—bones showing through skin, muscle loss, a body consuming itself.
Lean from deprivation
- haggardExhausted in appearance
- skeletalOf or like bones
- cadaverousResembling the deceased
- bonyThin, with protruding skeleton
scrawny · pinched · wizened · drawn · withered · shriveled · sunken · wasted
Lacking proper nutrition
- undernourishedInsufficiently nourished
- underfedLacking adequate food
- starvingSuffering extreme hunger
- famishedIntensely, painfully hungry
famine · malnutrition · starvation · hunger · anorexia · inanition · wasting · cachexia
Wasting from disuse
- witherDry and decay
- shrinkDecrease in size
- dwindleDecrease gradually over time
- waste awayDecline through neglect
deteriorate · decline · degenerate · consume · weaken · debilitate · enfeeble · sap
gaunt
Lean from deprivation
- haggardExhausted in appearance
- skeletalOf or like bones
- cadaverousResembling the deceased
bony · scrawny · pinched · wizened · drawn · withered · shriveled · sunken · wasted · angular
malnourished
Lacking proper nutrition
- undernourishedInsufficiently nourished
- underfedLacking adequate food
- starvingSuffering extreme hunger
famished · famine · malnutrition · starvation · hunger · anorexia · inanition · wasting · cachexia
atrophy
Wasting from disuse
waste away · deteriorate · decline · degenerate · consume · weaken · debilitate · enfeeble · sap · deplete
frail
Weak and breakable
delicate · infirm · debilitated · enfeebled · vulnerable · sickly · ailing · decrepit · tottering · unsteady
emaciaterecover
Regain health or possession
recuperate · nourish · convalesce · rally · rebound