Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Suggestive of death; corpselike.
  • adjective Of corpselike pallor; pallid.
  • adjective Emaciated; gaunt.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Pertaining to a dead body; especially, having the appearance or color of the body of a dead person; pale; wan; ghastly.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Having the appearance or color of a dead human body; pale; ghastly.
  • adjective Of or pertaining to, or having the qualities of, a dead body.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Corpselike; hinting of death; imitating a cadaver

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective of or relating to a cadaver or corpse
  • adjective very thin especially from disease or hunger or cold

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

cadaver +‎ -ous

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word cadaverous.

Examples

  • I keep thinking the word cadaverous but I know that’s wrong because I just like saying cadavers.

    super-suzan Diary Entry super-suzan 2006

  • Those hells are therefore named accordingly; some are called cadaverous, some stercoraceous, some urinous, and so on.

    Angelic Wisdom Concerning the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom Emanuel Swedenborg 1730

  • Before he went, he formally thanked his wife -- who hardly spoke to him unless she was obliged -- for her attention to his mother, and then lingered a little, looking no less "cadaverous," certainly, than when he had gone away, and apparently desiring to say more.

    Sir George Tressady — Volume II Humphry Ward 1885

  • Later, they would fall out over Louisa's desire to wear rouge in order to attenuate the "cadaverous" pallor of her complexion, which offended her husband's puritan sensibilities.

    The Harvard Crimson | All Articles Grace E. Jackson 2010

  • Later, they would fall out over Louisa's desire to wear rouge in order to attenuate the "cadaverous" pallor of her complexion, which offended her husband's puritan sensibilities.

    The Harvard Crimson | All Articles Grace E. Jackson 2010

  • Obama was always far more popular than the cadaverous Mr. Nelson.

    Joseph A. Palermo: Citizens United -- Game Changer Joseph A. Palermo 2010

  • In the past I was used to seeing a statue or banner of the Virgen de Guadalupe hanging from a bus's rear-view mirror, but now often the cadaverous figure of La Santa Muerte has become more and more common.

    Superstition 2009

  • In the past I was used to seeing a statue or banner of the Virgen de Guadalupe hanging from a bus's rear-view mirror, but now often the cadaverous figure of La Santa Muerte has become more and more common.

    Superstition 2009

  • Her cadaverous face drives her parents and friends to despair, but even so she refuses to feed herself.

    Dreamseller: The Calling Augusto Cury 2011

  • Vampires uncloaked, from ‘Nosferatu’ to ‘Twilight’ www. buffalonews.com: He was a tall, cadaverous old man with white hair and eyebrows so bushy they almost created a unibrow.

    VAMPIRE TOURS AND VAMPIRES UNCLOAKED! | Open Society Book Club Discussions and Reviews 2009

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • see also its quainly spelled cousin cadav'rous

    May 14, 2009