Can a body grow sallow?

Question

The dictionary says "Sallow" is about complexion/face. Can we extend the same to talk about body in general?

Eg., Her body grew sallow

Answer 1

There's nothing prohibiting it. The Dictionary.com definition is:

sallow - adjective sal·low·er, sal·low·est
-of a sickly, yellowish or lightish brown color

examples: sallow cheeks; a sallow complexion.

You'll notice that the definition doesn't itself even mention the face, though the example does, but only in the first example with "cheeks," not in the second with "complexion," the definition of "complexion being:

complexion - noun
-the natural color, texture, and appearance of the skin, especially of the face

example: a clear, smooth, rosy complexion.

You'll notice "complexion" refers to the "appearance of the skin." Adding "especially of the face," means not just the face but any skin. Had it wanted to limit the definition to only the face, it'd have said "appearance of the skin of the face."

So since neither the definition of ""sallow" defines it as describing a face but only "complexion," and since "complexion" isn't limited to the "face," you could use "sallow" to describe a person's body, like maybe you bring a newborn baby home from the hospital and she has become jaundiced such that, as you are changing the her, you noticed she has a sickly, yellowish skin tone all over her body, you may describe the baby — not just the baby's face — as appearing "sallow."

Answer 2

You can use it that way, though it's most commonly used to describe someone's face or complexion. I've heard 'a sallow youth' but never 'a sallow body'. Ngram seems to confirm this. As you see, Google Books finds only six examples of 'grew sallow' at the peak of its popularity, and even fewer examples of 'grow sallow'.