Meaning & use
sallow-skinned
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Meaning
adjectivenot comparable
having skin that is yellowish and looks slightly unhealthy or pale.
Grammar: Used after a linking verb (be, look, become) or before a noun.
Patterns
- be sallow-skinned
- look sallow-skinned
- a sallow-skinned person
After weeks without sunlight, he looked sallow-skinned and tired.
The doctor noticed the patient was sallow-skinned and ordered blood tests.
She appeared sallow-skinned in the dim light of the hospital room.
Common combinations
- look sallow-skinned
- You look sallow-skinned; are you feeling unwell?
- become sallow-skinned
- His face became sallow-skinned during the long illness.
- pale and sallow-skinned
- The child was pale and sallow-skinned after the fever.
Synonyms and how they differ
- pale
- Pale means lacking color, often from fear or cold, while sallow-skinned suggests a yellowish, unhealthy tone.
- yellowish
- Yellowish simply describes a yellow tint; sallow-skinned adds the idea of poor health.
Opposites
Word family
- sallow adjective
- Having a yellowish, unhealthy complexion.
- sallowness noun
- The quality of being sallow.
Commonly confused: sallow-skinned or shallow?
sallow-skinned vs shallow
Shallow means not deep; sallow means yellowish and unhealthy-looking. They sound similar but have unrelated meanings.
Practice
Choose the correct sentence:
Choose one answer.
Sallow-skinned is an adjective, so it is used after 'looked' without an adverb ending (-ly) or a noun form. The other options are not standard English.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “sallow-skinned”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.