rhizoverbBeta
DictionarycadaverousDeathlike appearance
adjective

cadaverous

kuh-DAV-er-uhs/kəˈdævərəs/

So pale and thin as to resemble a dead body.

The woman's hollow cheeks and ashen pallor give her a cadaverous appearance.

A close, three-quarter portrait of a living young woman whose extreme thinness, ashen pallor, hollow cheeks, sunken eyes, and prominent collarbones give her a distinctly deathlike appearance.
Etymology
cadaverLatindead body
+ousLatincharacterized by, like

The pieces mean “corpse-like.” Applied to a living person, cadaverous describes pallor and thinness so extreme that the person resembles a dead body.

In context

Pictures&More202:56
much the appearance of death masks when we had taken our places at the little table near the great gas ring I inquired what they were they do look rather cadaverous don't they
The D'Arblay Mystery by R. Austin Freeman | Detective Fiction | Audiobook

More examples

  • His cadaverous cheeks made the character look gravely ill.
  • A cadaverous figure emerged from the shadows in the story.
  • The portrait emphasized her hollow eyes and cadaverous pallor.

Forms

cadaverous

Similar words

gaunt
Extremely thin, while cadaverous also suggests deathlike pallor.