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cadaverously

cadaverously

1 9.6
A person looks very pale and thin, like a dead body
  • adverb
  • /kəˈdævərəsli/
: cadavéricamente
  • cadaverously thin

Examples

  • "Grandmother?" Red Star, a five-year-old girl with wide brown eyes and a cadaverously thin face, called.

    Fiction book (1990)
  • Paul, cadaverously skinny, his long black hair in a ponytail, a golden ring in his left earlobe;

    Fiction book (1994)
  • He walked in alone—a cadaverously thin man, stooped, with a grizzled gray-and-ginger beard.

    Fiction book (1995)
  • On one of his late afternoon walks, Papa met, outside Fouquet's, a tall, cadaverously thin, dandyish gentleman with a dirty starched collar, an ashplant, and a quarrelsome temper.

    Fiction book (1995)
  • The cadaverously thin man struggled to lift the heavy box.

  • She looked cadaverously pale after being ill for weeks.

  • After the long illness, he appeared cadaverously weak and frail.

Synonyms

lifelessly
vscadaverously
1 5.4

In a way that shows no energy or interest

focuses on extreme pallor and thinness rather than lack of movement
anemically
vscadaverously
  • US
1 8.0

In a weak, pale way showing little energy

is much more extremely pale and thin, like a dead body

Antonyms

68 3.4

In a strong, energetic way showing a lot of effort

4 4.4

In a strong and forceful way

How Pale

cadaverously
1 9.6
pallidly
1 8.4
faintly
34 2.7

Surface Forms

cadaverously positive

Morphology

cadaverously = cadaverous (transparent) = cadaver + ous + ly

The adverb is formed regularly by adding '-ly' to 'cadaverous', whose meaning is directly derived from 'cadaver' + '-ous'.

Etymology

Cadaverously comes from the word cadaver, which means 'dead body', and it paints a picture of someone very pale and thin, almost like a corpse. So, to look cadaverously thin is to look extremely pale, hollow, and lifeless.