Adjacent Words

Sickly definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

SICK'LY, a.
1. Not healthy; somewhat affected with disease; or habitually indisposed; as a sickly person, or a sickly constitution; a sickly plant.
2. Producing disease extensively; marked with sickness; as a sickly time; a sickly autumn.
3. Tending to produce disease; as a sickly climate.
4. Faint; weak; languid. The moon grows sickly at the sight of day.
SICK'LY, v. t. To make diseased.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: unhealthy looking [syn: sallow, sickly]
2: somewhat ill or prone to illness; "my poor ailing grandmother"; "feeling a bit indisposed today"; "you look a little peaked"; "feeling poorly"; "a sickly child"; "is unwell and can't come to work" [syn: ailing, indisposed, peaked, poorly, sickly, unwell, under the weather, seedy]

Merriam Webster's

I. adjective Date: 14th century 1. somewhat unwell; also habitually ailing 2. produced by or associated with sickness <a sickly complexion> <a sickly appetite> 3. producing or tending to produce disease ; unwholesome <a sickly climate> 4. a. appearing as if sick b. lacking in vigor ; weak <a sickly plant> 5. sickening <a sickly odor> • sickliness noun II. transitive verb (sicklied; sicklying) Date: 1763 to make sick or sickly

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. (sicklier, sickliest) 1 a of weak health; apt to be ill. b (of a person's complexion, look, etc.) languid, faint, or pale, suggesting sickness (a sickly smile). c (of light or colour) faint, pale, feeble. 2 causing ill health (a sickly climate). 3 (of a book etc.) sentimental or mawkish. 4 inducing or connected with nausea (a sickly taste). 5 (of a colour etc.) of an unpleasant shade inducing nausea (a sickly green). Derivatives: sickliness n. Etymology: ME, prob. after ON sjukligr (as SICK(1))

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Sickly Sick"ly, a. [Compar. Sicklier; superl. Sickliest.] 1. Somewhat sick; disposed to illness; attended with disease; as, a sickly body. This physic but prolongs thy sickly days. --Shak. 2. Producing, or tending to, disease; as, a sickly autumn; a sickly climate. --Cowper. 3. Appearing as if sick; weak; languid; pale. The moon grows sickly at the sight of day. --Dryden. Nor torrid summer's sickly smile. --Keble. 4. Tending to produce nausea; sickening; as, a sickly smell; sickly sentimentality. Syn: Diseased; ailing; infirm; weakly; unhealthy; healthless; weak; feeble; languid; faint.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Sickly Sick"ly, adv. In a sick manner or condition; ill. My people sickly [with ill will] beareth our marriage. --Chaucer.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Sickly Sick"ly, v. t. To make sick or sickly; -- with over, and probably only in the past participle. [R.] Sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought. --Shak. Sentiments sicklied over . . . with that cloying heaviness into which unvaried sweetness is too apt to subside. --Jeffrey.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(sicklier, sickliest) 1. A sickly person or animal is weak, unhealthy, and often ill. He had been a sickly child. ADJ 2. A sickly smell or taste is unpleasant and makes you feel slightly sick, often because it is extremely sweet. ...the sickly smell of rum. ADJ 3. A sickly colour or light is unpleasantly pale or weak. Wallpapers for children too often come only in sickly pastel shades. ADJ: usu ADJ n

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. Weak, languid, faint, feeble, ailing, languishing, unhealthy, diseased, infirm, weakly, morbid, valetudinary.

Moby Thesaurus

achromatic, achromic, ailing, anemic, ashen, ashy, bled white, bloodless, cachectic, cadaverous, chloranemic, cloying, colorless, cranky, dead, deadly pale, deathly pale, debilitated, delicate, dim, dimmed, dingy, discolored, diseased, donsie, down, drained, drawn, dull, enervated, etiolated, exhausted, exsanguinated, exsanguine, exsanguineous, faded, failing, faint, fallow, feeble, flat, frail, ghastly, gray, haggard, healthless, hueless, hypochromic, in poor health, indisposed, infirm, insalubrious, insipid, invalid, lackluster, languishing, leaden, livid, low, lurid, lusterless, mat, maudlin, mawkish, mealy, mean, moribund, morose, muddy, mushy, neutral, noisome, noxious, off-color, offish, pale, pale as death, pale-faced, pallid, pasty, peaked, peaking, peaky, pimping, poorly, puny, reduced, reduced in health, run-down, sallow, sick, sickish, tallow-faced, toneless, uncolored, unhealthful, unhealthy, unsound, valetudinarian, valetudinary, wan, washed-out, watery, waxen, weak, weakened, weakly, whey-faced, white, with low resistance