What does emaciate mean?
To emaciate means to make someone or something abnormally thin and weak, typically through hunger, malnutrition, or prolonged illness, though the verb can also be used intransitively to describe wasting away. It derives from Latin macer, meaning lean or thin, and belongs largely to formal, clinical, and literary registers — doctors' reports, humanitarian accounts of famine, and descriptive journalism favor it over everyday phrasing. In practice, the adjective form 'emaciated' appears most often: one speaks of an emaciated prisoner, an emaciated stray dog, or children emaciated by drought. Because it implies severe, visible physical decline rather than mere slimness, the word carries heavy connotations of suffering and deprivation and should not be used casually about ordinary thinness. Its relatives include macerate, meager, and macabre, all tracing back to the same Latin root.
To make someone or something abnormally thin and weak, especially through hunger or illness.
"The siege emaciated the city's inhabitants within months."
Usually found in the passive or as the participle 'emaciated.'
To become abnormally thin; to waste away.
"Left untreated, the illness caused him to emaciate rapidly."
Intransitive use is less common than the transitive sense.
Emaciate and macerate — to soften by soaking — both descend from the same Latin root meaning 'to make lean,' which is also where 'meager' comes from.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of emaciate
Emaciate entered English in the early 17th century, borrowed from the Latin maciatus, the past participle of maciare, meaning to make lean or thin, itself formed from macer, meaning lean or wasted. The same root produced macerate (to soften by steeping) and gave English the adjective meager via Old French. Cognates appear across the Romance languages, such as Italian magro and French maigre, both meaning thin or lean.
Related word forms
How emaciate is actually used
Formal or clinical in register; in everyday speech people more often say 'wasted away' than 'emaciated.' The past participle 'emaciated' is far more common than the base verb. The word carries strongly negative connotations of suffering, starvation, or disease.
Easily confused with emaciate
To emasculate is to deprive a man of his male role or strength, while to emaciate is to make someone extremely thin and weak from hunger or disease.