wasted away
Gradually became emaciated
To waste away is to lose weight and strength gradually, typically from illness, starvation, or grief.
The phrase suggests slow deterioration over time rather than sudden decline: She wasted away after the diagnosis, He watched his savings waste away.
The past form often appears as a modifier: his wasted frame.
- languishedGrew weak from suffering
- emaciatedAbnormally wasted from hunger
- gauntLean from deprivation
- skin and bonesExtreme thinness, no flesh
- atrophiedDeclined from underuse
withered · skeletal · sickness · pined · cadaverous · mere shadow · consumed · shriveled · malnourished · thin · faded · feeble · diminished · deteriorated · worn thin · decrepit · haggard · spent
wasted awayfilled out
Became fuller in form
put on weight · plumped up · beefed up · swelled · bloated
wasted awayflourished
Grew vigorously, succeeded
thrived · blossomed · strengthened · recovered · bloomed
waste, away, wasted, wasteful, wasting, wastes, wasteland, wastefully, waster