pale as death
Drained of color
Pale as death describes an extremely white or bloodless complexion, the kind associated with corpses or someone who has received terrifying news.
The comparison to death emphasizes how drained of color a person's face appears.
She went pale as death when she saw the accident.
The phrase is somewhat literary or dramatic; in casual speech, people more often say white as a sheet or simply pale as a ghost.
- whiteAbsence of pigment
- white as a ghostExtremely pale complexion
- wanPale and unwell-looking
- ghostlyResembling a specter
- ashenPale, grayish-white
cadaverous · haggard · blanched · spectral · sallow · macabre · washed-out · simile · corpse-like · white as a sheet · terrified · scared stiff · idiom · colorless · horrified · lifeless · anemic · morbid
- color simileswhite as snow, black as night, green as grass, black as coal
pale as deathfull of life
Energetic and animated
radiant · vibrant · alive and well · hale and hearty · in the pink
pale, paler, palest, palely, paleness, pallid, pallor, death, dead