Sickly

Full definition of sickly

Adjective

1. Frequently ill; often in poor health; given to becoming ill.a sickly child
2. Having the appearance of sickness or ill health; appearing ill, infirm or unhealthy; pale.a sickly plant
• DrydenThe moon grows sickly at the sight of day.
3. Weak; faint; suggesting unhappiness.a sickly smile
4. Somewhat sick; disposed to illness; attended with disease.
• ShakespeareThis physic but prolongs thy sickly days.
5. Tending to produce disease.a sickly autumn; a sickly climate
6. Tending to produce nausea; sickening.a sickly smell; sickly sentimentality

Related terms

• sickliness

Verb

1. (transitive) To make sickly.
• ShakespeareSicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought.
• 1840, S. M. Heaton, George Heaton, Thoughts on the Litany, by a naval officer's orphan daughter (page 58)...a cancer gnawing at the root of happiness, defeating every aim at permanent good in this world, and sicklying all sublunary joys...
• 1871, Gail Hamilton, Country living and country thinking (page 109)He evidently thinks the sweet little innocents never heard or thought of such a thing before, and would go on burying their curly heads in books, and sicklying their rosy faces with "the pale cast of thought" till the end of time...

Adverb

1. In a sick manner.
• 2010, Rowan Somerville, The End of Sleep (page 66)The creaseless horizontal face of the giant smiled sickly, leering.