Definition

1. Verb (transitive):
   • To cause to become abnormally thin or weak, especially due to illness, starvation, or suffering. It implies a wasting away of flesh or vitality.
2. Verb (intransitive):
   • To become abnormally thin or weak; to waste away physically.

Usage

• Transitive Verb (to emaciate someone/something): Used when an external cause (like disease, treatment, or deprivation) leads to severe weight loss and weakness in a person, animal, or even metaphorically in things like soil or plants.
• Intransitive Verb (to emaciate): Used to describe the process of becoming emaciated. This form is less common than the related adjective "emaciated."

Examples

• Transitive Verb:
  • The prolonged famine emaciated the population.
  • The harsh treatment and lack of food emaciated the prisoners.
• Intransitive Verb:
  • Without proper nutrition, the patient began to emaciate rapidly.
  • The soil emaciated after years of unsustainable farming.

Advanced Usage

• Causative vs. Resultative: The transitive use (to emaciate) is causative (X emaciates Y). The more frequent usage is the resultative state described by the adjective "emaciated" (Y is/became emaciated).
• Figurative/Literary Use: Can be applied to non-living things to describe a loss of richness, vitality, or strength.
  • Decades of conflict emaciated the nation's cultural institutions.

Variants and Related Words

• Emaciated (adjective): Extremely thin and weak, especially from illness or hunger. This is the most common form to describe the state.
  • The emaciated dog was rescued from the streets.
• Emaciation (noun): The state or process of being emaciated.
  • The degree of emaciation was a clear sign of severe neglect.

Synonyms

• Waste away (verb phrase): To gradually become thinner and weaker.
• Atrophy (verb): To waste away, especially from lack of use (often for muscles or body tissue).
• Gaunt (adjective): (Similar to ) Lean and haggard, especially from suffering or age.

Antonyms

• Nourish (verb): To provide with food or substances necessary for growth and health.
• Fatten (verb): To make or become fat or plumper.
• Robust (adjective): Strong and healthy; vigorous.

Related Phrases/Idioms

• To be reduced to a skeleton: An idiom describing extreme emaciation.
• Wasting disease: A term for illnesses that cause emaciation.

Verb

1. grow weak and thin or waste away physically
   • She emaciated during the chemotherapy
2. cause to grow thin or weak
   • The treatment emaciated him