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Glite Dictionary
to turn pasty

to turn pasty

8.1
To become pale and look sick from shock, fear or illness
  • phrasal verb
translation icon : ponerse pálido
  • After hearing the bad news, her face turned pasty with shock.

Examples

  • He felt sick and his complexion quickly turned pasty as he sat on the sofa.

  • "Eyes," Skander murmured, and his hide, normally a reddish brown, turned pasty white.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • Seeing the horror movie alone at night made him turn pasty with fear.

Synonyms

to pale
vsto turn pasty
41 3.7

Become very light in color, often from fear or illness

has a sickly unhealthy tone rather than just lighter skin color
to blanch
vsto turn pasty
5 7.4

To become pale from sudden fear or shock

shows sickly skin rather than merely a sudden emotional reaction
to turn pale
vsto turn pasty
3 3.2

Become very white in the face when you feel shocked, afraid, or sick

shows a sickly unhealthy skin tone rather than only quick color loss

Antonyms

to glow
93 1.0

To have warm, healthy cheeks that show happiness

How Pale

to turn pasty
8.1
to turn pale
3 3.2
to blanch
5 7.4

Surface Forms

turn pasty infinitive
turned pasty past
turned pasty past participle
turning pasty present participle
turns pasty third person singular

Morphology

turn + pasty

The meaning 'to become pale and unhealthy-looking' is directly compositional from 'turn' (change into) + 'pasty' (pale, waxy appearance); there is no idiomatic shift. The productive English pattern turn + ADJ (become ADJ) is common and cross-linguistically paralleled, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the meaning.

Etymology

The phrase turn pasty may come from comparing a face to pale pastry dough: when someone turns pasty, their skin looks pale and soft like dough. So, saying someone 'turns pasty' means 'to become pale and unhealthy-looking'.