pale

I noun

1)

the pales of a fence

Syn:

stake, post, pole, picket, upright

2)

outside the pale of decency

Syn:

boundary, confines, bounds, limits

•

- beyond the pale

II 1. adjective

1)

she looked pale and drawn

Syn:

white, pallid, pasty, wan, colorless, anemic, bloodless, washed out, peaked, ashen, gray, whitish, white-faced, whey-faced, drained, sickly, sallow, as white as a sheet, deathly pale; milky, creamy, cream, ivory, milk-white, alabaster; informal like death warmed over

Ant:

rosy, flushed

2)

pale colors

Syn:

light, light-colored, pastel, muted, subtle, soft; faded, bleached, washed out

3)

the pale light of morning

Syn:

dim, faint, weak, feeble

Ant:

dark, bright

4)

a pale imitation

Syn:

feeble, weak, insipid, bland, poor, inadequate; uninspired, unimaginative, lackluster, spiritless, lifeless; informal pathetic

2. verb

1)

his face paled

Syn:

go/turn white, grow/turn pale, blanch, lose color

2)

everything else pales by comparison

Syn:

decrease in importance, lose significance, pale into insignificance, fade into the background

••

pale, ashen, livid, pallid, wan

Someone of fair complexion who usually stays indoors and spends little time in the sun is apt to be pale, referring to an unusually white or colorless complexion; one can also become pale out of fear or illness. Someone who has lost color from being ill or under stress may be described as pallid, which suggests a paleness that is the result of some abnormal condition (she appeared pallid when she left the police station). Wan also connotes an unhealthy condition or sickly paleness (her wan face smiled at him from the hospital bed). Someone who is ashen has skin the pale grayish color of ashes (ashen with fear), while livid can mean either bluish to describe loss of normal coloring (the livid face of a drowned corpse) or reddish or flushed (livid with rage).