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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Emaciation

Emaciation \E*ma`ci*a"tion\, n. [Cf. F. ['e]maciation.]

  1. The act of making very lean.

  2. The state of being emaciated or reduced to excessive leanness; an excessively lean condition.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
emaciation

1660s, from Latin emaciationem, noun of state from past participle stem of emaciare (see emaciate), or perhaps a native formation from emaciate.

Wiktionary
emaciation

n. 1 The act of making very lean. 2 The state of being emaciated or reduced to excessive leanness; an excessively lean condition.

WordNet
emaciation

n. extreme leanness (usually caused by starvation or disease) [syn: bonyness, gauntness, maceration]

Wikipedia
Emaciation

Emaciation ( or ) is defined as extreme weight loss and unnatural thinness due to a loss of subcutaneous fat (the fatty, or adipose tissue beneath the skin) and muscle throughout the body. It affects human beings and animals; one that is emaciated could be described as "wasting away" or being "gaunt." Emaciation is caused by severe malnourishment and starvation. Emaciation is a predominant symptom of malnourishment, a basic component of poverty and famine that also occurs with diseases that interfere with the digestive system and appetite, other systems, and eating disorders. These include nutrient deficiency disorders, diseases with prolonged fever and infection, malignant diseases, parasitic infections that can result from contamination, anorexia nervosa and other conditions. The malnourishment associated with emaciation has been referred to as "inanition", while infection by parasites has been described as "adulteration". Treatment of emaciation includes gradual renourishment with a slow increase of daily caloric intake to help rebuild tissues and regain weight. Rest, and emotional and psychological therapy and support may be included.

Usage examples of "emaciation".

The arrest of the abnormal breaking down of the tissues, and the prevention of emaciation.

The fever will bring emaciation and asthenia and lassitude, until you have no will to move at all.

All four of them were specimens of that stalwart race that commands so high a price in the African market, and in spite of the emaciation induced by their recent sufferings, their muscular, well-knit frames betokened a strong and healthy constitution.

Now Brad could clearly see that the in sectile limbs of the body were severely attenuated human arms and legs, that the sunken body cavity and strangely shriveled genitals were the products of acute emaciation, that the fright-mask face was the result of dehydration without decay.

For if some one, famishing for want and pressed with hunger, use human flesh as food,-an extremity not unknown, as both ancient history and the unhappy experience of our own days have taught us,-can it be contended, with any show of reason, that all the flesh eaten has been evacuated, and that none of it has been assimilated to the substance of the eater though the very emaciation which existed before, and has now disappeared, sufficiently indicates what large deficiencies have been filled up with this food?

Both were tall and peculiarly thin - not the thinness of emaciation, but that of bodily structure.

Astrid tried to half lead, half carry him away, but though his emaciation had reached a degree where he could scarcely be any heavier than the girl, if at all, his uncontrollable lurching made her stagger across the pavement.

A Chinese of extreme emaciation came into the room: he seemed to take up no room at all: he was like the piece of grease-proof paper* that divides the biscuits in a tin.

This was all they had to look forward to: captivity, emaciation, skeletonization, and finally disappearance.

His thinness wasn't Bird's emaciation, born of a stringtown diet and bad nerves.

We read of loss of appetite, emaciation, want of the vital spark, habituation, and even a most degrading slavery.