undernourished
Lacking adequate nutrition
Undernourished describes someone who hasn't received adequate food or nutrients for good health.
The word emphasizes ongoing deficiency rather than acute starvation: The clinic treated undernourished children from the refugee camp.
Undernourished can extend to anything insufficiently fed or supported: an undernourished budget, undernourished soil.
Abnormally wasted from hunger
- gauntLean from deprivation
- wastedUsed without good result
- stuntedArrested in development
- underweightBelow normal mass
skeletal · bony · scrawny · withered · spindly · wasting · atrophy · skin-and-bones
Disease from dietary inadequacy
Suffering extreme hunger
Weak and breakable
- feebleWeak and ineffective
- debilitatedMade weak or infirm
- lethargicLacking energy or alertness
- exhaustedUtterly depleted of energy
enervated · weakened · sapped · listless · fatigued · sluggish · tired · drained
Severe food shortage
- povertySevere lack of resources
- droughtProlonged water scarcity
- neglectFailure to provide care
- malabsorptionFailed intestinal nutrient uptake
displacement · war · rationing
emaciated
Abnormally wasted from hunger
underweight · skeletal · bony · scrawny · withered · spindly · wasting · atrophy · skin-and-bones · drawn
malnutrition
Disease from dietary inadequacy
starving
Suffering extreme hunger
frail
Weak and breakable
- feebleWeak and ineffective
- debilitatedMade weak or infirm
- lethargicLacking energy or alertness
exhausted · enervated · weakened · sapped · listless · fatigued · sluggish · tired · drained · run-down
famine
Severe food shortage
- hungerhunger, hungry, starving, starvation, famished
- skinnythin, slim, slender, lean, skinny
- malnutritionmalnutrition, starvation, wasting, stunting, cachexia
undernourishment, undernourish, undernourishes, undernourishing