Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Prone to sickness.
  • adjective Of, caused by, or associated with sickness.
  • adjective Conducive to sickness.
  • adjective Causing nausea; nauseating.
  • adjective Lacking vigor or strength; feeble or weak.
  • transitive verb Archaic To make sickly.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Habitually ailing or indisposed; not sound or strong as regards health or natural vigor; liable to be or become sick: as, a sickly person, animal, or plant; a sickly family.
  • Pertaining to or arising from a state of impaired health; characteristic of an unhealthy condition: as, a sickly complexion; the sickly look of a person, an animal, or a tree.
  • Pertaining to sickness or the sick; suitable for a sick person.
  • Marked by the presence or prevalence of sickness: as, a sickly town; the season is very sickly.
  • Causing sickness, in any sense; producing malady, disease, nausea, or disgust; debilitating; nauseating; mawkish: as, a sickly climate; sickly fogs; sickly fare.
  • Manifesting a disordered or enfeebled condition of mind; mentally unsound or weak: as, sickly sentimentality.
  • Synonyms Unwell, Ill, etc. See sick.
  • In a sick, sickly, or feeble manner; so as to show ill health or debility.
  • To make sickly; give a sickly or unhealthy appearance to.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Somewhat sick; disposed to illness; attended with disease.
  • adjective Producing, or tending to, disease.
  • adjective Appearing as if sick; weak; languid; pale.
  • adjective Tending to produce nausea; sickening
  • adverb In a sick manner or condition; ill.
  • transitive verb rare To make sick or sickly; -- with over, and probably only in the past participle.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Frequently ill; often in poor health; given to becoming ill.
  • adjective Having the appearance of sickness or ill health; appearing ill, infirm or unhealthy; pale.
  • adjective Weak; faint; suggesting unhappiness.
  • verb transitive To make sickly.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective unhealthy looking
  • adjective somewhat ill or prone to illness

Etymologies

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Examples

  • "All right, captain," Charley said to the disconsolate yachtsman, who smiled in sickly fashion at the title.

    The King of the Greeks 2010

  • The reason that “sicklist” prayers are so sickly is that they do not often truly “hunger and thirst for righteousness.” yet at the same time they are appropriate, for a longing for Shalom, a longing for peace, includes the holistic restoration of all that was lost in the fall, including physical illness and infirmaties.

    Uncommon Prayer – Grasping for the Wind 2006

  • I only meant to say that we are both ... since you don't like the word sickly

    A Month in the Country 2006

  • The emptiness of it all is to be hidden under the esctasy – contorted faces, twisted limbs, saints, whose only true passion is the dread of their own engulfing doubt, which they try to drown in sickly exaltation.

    Jenny: A Novel 1921

  • "All right, captain," Charley said to the disconsolate yachtsman, who smiled in sickly fashion at the title.

    The "King Of The Greeks" 1905

  • "All right, captain," Charley said to the disconsolate yachtsman, who smiled in sickly fashion at the title.

    The King of the Greeks 1905

  • The fact of the health of the young and healthier person being, as it were, stolen to support that of the more aged and sickly is well established among the medical faculty.

    Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible 1871

  • In summer, bark-stove plants require very little care, except to prevent them from receiving any sudden check, as, if the heat be not kept up regularly, the plants are very liable to stop growing, and, when the heat is renewed, to shoot a second time, and thus to waste their strength in sickly and imperfect growth.

    The Lady's Country Companion: or, How to Enjoy a Country Life Rationally Jane 1845

  • Amitabh Mitra its not friday today yet summers have changed replacing with laughter striking paint flaking walls the smell of decay and the black label sickly lungs and hollow eyes scream a welcome onslaught of such seasons women dance to the fury of moon every friday in mdantsane

    Desicritics 2009

  • Eran gave her a grin that could only be described as sickly.

    Highborn Yvonne Navarro 2010

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