Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Having white or pale lips, especially as a result of intense fear, terror, or shock: Describes a physical state where the lips lose their normal color and become pale or white, typically due to a strong emotional reaction such as fear.

Usage and Examples

• Adjective:
  • The white-lipped witness could barely speak after seeing the accident. (The witness, whose lips were pale from shock, could barely speak.)
  • She stared at the ghost, white-lipped and trembling. (She stared at the ghost, with pale lips and trembling.)
  • His white-lipped expression told me he had received terrible news. (His expression, with white lips, told me he had received terrible news.)

Advanced Usage

• The term is primarily used in descriptive writing, especially in literature or journalism, to vividly convey a character's extreme emotional state without explicitly stating it. It focuses on a specific, visible physical symptom.
• It can sometimes be used metaphorically or hyperbolically to describe someone who is extremely anxious or stressed, even if the pallor is not literally visible.
  • The white-lipped negotiators awaited the final decision. (The extremely anxious negotiators awaited the final decision.)

Variants and Related Words

• White-faced (adj): Having a pale face, often from shock or fear. This is a related term describing a similar physical reaction but affecting the entire face.
• Pale-lipped (adj): A less common synonym with a very similar meaning.

Synonyms

• Ashen-lipped: Having lips the color of ash; pale.
• Pale with fear: A more common phrase describing a similar overall condition.

Notes on Meaning

• The term almost exclusively describes a reaction to fear, terror, shock, or extreme stress. It is not typically used to describe paleness from illness or cold, though those could be implied in context.
• It is a compound adjective formed from "white" + "lipped." As a single lexical unit, it functions to modify a noun directly.

Adjective

1. having white lips from fear or terror