Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
to turn pasty

to turn pasty

1 8.1
To become pale and look sick from shock, fear or illness
  • phrasal verb
: 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
7 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
6 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
60 1.0

To have warm, healthy cheeks that show happiness

How Pale

to turn pasty
1 8.1
to turn pale
3 3.2
to blanch
6 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'.