pale has definitions from the field of color
1
[ adjective ] (color) very light colored; highly diluted with white

Examples

"pale seagreen" "pale blue eyes"

Used in print

(Robert Penn Warren, Wilderness....)

Once covertly looking at Simms_Purdew , the only man in the world whom he hated , he had seen the heavy , slack , bestubbled jaw open and close to emit the cruel , obscene banter , and had seen the pale blue eyes go watery with whisky and merriment , and suddenly he was not seeing the face of that vile creature .

(John Cheever, "The Brigadier and the Golf Widow,"...)

She was a pale woman .

(Philip Jos‚ Farmer, The Lovers....)

Macneff stopped pacing to stare at Hal with his pale blue eyes .

Related terms

light

2
[ adjective ] (of light) lacking in intensity or brightness; dim or feeble

Synonyms

wan pallid

Examples

"the pale light of a half moon" "a pale sun" "the late afternoon light coming through the el tracks fell in pale oblongs on the street" "a pallid sky" "the pale (or wan) stars"

Used in print

(Chicago Daily Tribune...)

Certainly not in Orchestra_hall where he has played countless recitals , and where Thursday night he celebrated his 20th season with the Chicago_Symphony_orchestra , playing the Brahms_Concerto with his own slashing , demon-ridden cadenza melting into the high , pale , pure and lovely song with which a violinist unlocks the heart of the music , or forever finds it closed .

(Louis Zara, Dark Rider....)

The boy shuddered at the deathly pale countenance with its wrinkles and gray hair .

(W. H. Gass, "The Pedersen Kid," in The...)

The covers slid down his skinny neck so I saw his head , fuzzed like a dandelion gone to seed , but his face was turned to the wall - there was the pale shadow of his nose on the plaster - and I thought , Well you do n't look much like a pig-drunk bully now .

(Whit Masterson, Evil Come, Evil Go....)

And once Bake slipped in , pale and drawn , last night 's liquor still on his breath with some of today 's added to_it .

Related terms

weak

3
[ adjective ] lacking in vitality or interest or effectiveness

Synonyms

pallid

Examples

"a pale rendition of the aria" "pale prose with the faint sweetness of lavender" "a pallid performance"

Used in print

(The Providence Journal...)

Still , his finale is put_together with taste and a most sensitive projection of that pale sustenance , despair .

(J. W. C. Hagstrom et al., "Debilitating muscular...)

The liver weighed 2090 gm. , was brown in color , and the cut surface was mottled by irregular pale areas .

The kidneys were pale and weighed right , 110 gm. , and left , 230 gm. .

The marrow of the vertebral bodies was pale and showed areas of fatty replacement .

The muscles of the extremities , chest wall , neck , and abdominal wall were soft , pale , and atrophic .

Related terms

colorless

4
[ adjective ] (color) abnormally deficient in color as suggesting physical or emotional distress

Synonyms

pallid wan

Examples

"the pallid face of the invalid" "her wan face suddenly flushed"

Used in print

(T. C. McClary, "The Flooded Desert," Argosy,...)

Her face was pale but set and her dark eyes smoldered with blame for Ben .

The pale blob of the woman disappeared .

Related terms

colorless

5
[ verb ] (color) turn pale, as if in fear

Synonyms

blanch blench

Used in print

(Frieda Arkin, "The Light of the Sea," in The...)

She looked at the girl speculatively from eyes which had paled with the years ; from the early evening lights of them which had first startled Izaak to look at her in an uncousinly way , they had faded to a near absence of color which had , possibly from her constant looking_at the water , something of the light of the sea in them .

Related terms

discolor lividness

6
[ noun ] a wooden strip forming part of a fence

Synonyms

picket

Used in print

(Octavia Waldo, A Cup of the Sun....)

One lithe leg straddled the railing and swung loosely before the creaking , torn pales .

Related terms

strip picket_fence

7
[ adjective ] not full or rich

Examples

"high, pale, pure and lovely song"

Related terms

thin

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