to look peakish

9.0

Appear a little unwell and pale

phrasal verb

: verse mal

You look peakish; maybe you should lie down for a while.

Examples

She looked peakish after the long flight.
Whenever she's nervous, she tends to look peakish and pale.
After a week of difficult exams, he really did look peakish.
You look peakish today.
After a week of difficult exams, he really did look peakish and in need of rest.
You look peakish; perhaps you haven't been sleeping well lately.
She tends to look peakish and drained after a long day at work.

Antonyms

healthy

695 1.0

In good body and mind condition without sickness or injury

vibrant

81 4.1

Full of energy and activity that makes people feel excited

How Unwell

to feel unwell

3 1.8

to look peakish

9.0

under the weather

Informal

21 5.3

Surface Forms

look peakish infinitive

looked peakish past

looked peakish past participle

looking peakish present participle

looks peakish third person singular

Morphology

look + peakish

Although the syntactic frame 'look + adjective' is transparent, the adjective 'peakish' is dialectal/rare and its meaning 'slightly unwell or pale' cannot be derived from the literal constituent 'peak' (high point) or from a regular '-ish' extension. A B1 learner who knows 'look' and 'peak' would not predict the sickness sense without prior exposure, so the expression is idiomatic and unpredictable.

Etymology

The verb look peakish may come from the word peak, meaning a sharp point. When people feel ill their face can look thin and pointed like a peak, so look peakish came to mean 'to appear unwell or pale'.