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Wan vs Gaunt - What's the difference?

wan | gaunt | Related terms |

Wan is a related term of gaunt.


As an adjective gaunt is

lean, angular and bony.

wan

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl), from (etyl) .

Adjective

(wanner)
  • Pale, sickly-looking.
  • * Spenser
    • Sad to view, his visage pale and wan .
  • * Longfellow
    • the wan moon overhead
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year=1921 , year_published=2012 , edition=HTML , editor= , author=Edgar Rice Burrows , title=The Efficiency Expert , chapter= citation , genre= , publisher=The Gutenberg Project , isbn= , page= , passage=She looked wan and worried, ... }}
  • Dim, faint.
  • * {{quote-book, passage=’twas so far away, that evil day when I prayed to the Prince of Gloom / For the savage strength and the sullen length of life to work his doom. / Nor sign nor word had I seen or heard, and it happed so long ago; / My youth was gone and my memory wan , and I willed it even so.
    • , title=(Ballads of a Cheechako) , chapter=(The Ballad of One-Eyed Mike) , author=Robert W. Service , year=1909}}
  • Bland, uninterested.
    • A wan expression

    Noun

    (-)
  • The quality of being wan; wanness.
  • * Tennyson
    • Tinged with wan from lack of sleep.

    Etymology 2

    Inflected forms.

    Verb

    (head)
  • (obsolete) (win)

    • Anagrams

    * ----

    gaunt

    English

    Alternative forms

    * (l) * (l) (Scotland)

    Adjective

    (er)
  • lean, angular and bony
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year=1894 , author=Joseph Jacobs , title=The Fables of Aesop , chapter=1 citation , passage=A gaunt Wolf was almost dead with hunger when he happened to meet a House-dog who was passing by.}}
  • haggard, drawn and emaciated
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year=1917 , author=Arthur Conan Doyle , title=His Last Bow , chapter=5 citation , passage=In the dim light of a foggy November day the sick room was a gloomy spot, but it was that gaunt , wasted face staring at me from the bed which sent a chill to my heart.}}
  • bleak, barren and desolate
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year=1908 , author=William Hope Hodgson , title=The House on the Borderland , chapter=14 citation , passage=Behind me, rose up, to an extraordinary height, gaunt , black cliffs. }}

    Synonyms

    * scraggy, scrawny, skinny