sickly
adverb
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L199425 on Wikidata ↗adjective
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L340426 on Wikidata ↗Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈsɪkli/
adj
Etymology: From Middle English seekly, sekely, siklich, sekeliche, equivalent to sick + -ly. Possibly a modification of Old English sīcle (“sickly”) and/or derived from Old Norse sjúkligr (“sickly”). Cognate with Dutch ziekelijk, Middle High German siechlich, Danish sygelig, Swedish sjuklig, Icelandic sjúklegur. The verb is from the adjective.
- Frequently ill or in poor health; weakly.
“a sickly child”
“1759, Tobias Smollett, letter dated 16 March, 1759, in James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson, London: Charles Dilly, 1791, Volume 1, p. 190, … the boy is a sickly lad, of a delicate frame, and particularly subject to a malady in his throat, which renders him very unfit for his Majesty’s service.”
- Not in good health; (somewhat) sick.
“Yes, bring me word, boy, if thy lord look well, For he went sickly forth:”
“For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep [i.e. have died].”
- Characterized by poor or unhealthy growth. (of a plant)
“[...] the good wheat on this land had turned sickly and yellow.”
“With the aid of the marigolds the roses flourished; in the control beds they were sickly and drooping.”
- Appearing ill, infirm or unhealthy; giving the appearance of illness.
“a sickly pallor”
“1782, Frances Burney, Cecilia, London: T. Payne and Son, and T. Cadell, Volume 1, Book 1, Chapter 9, p. 121, … she exhibited a countenance so wretched, and a complection so sickly, that Cecilia was impressed with horror at the sight.”
- Shedding a relatively small amount of light; (of light) not very bright.
“The Moon grows sickly at the sight of day.”
“Night, and all her sickly dews, Her Spectres wan, and Birds of boding cry,”
- Lacking intensity or vigour.
“a sickly smile”
“What man of soul would [...] run, Day after day, the still-returning round Of life’s mean offices, and sickly joys; But in compassion to mankind?”
- Associated with poor moral or mental well-being.
“The slightest distress, whether real or fictitious, touched him to the quick, and his soul laboured under a sickly sensibility of the miseries of others.”
“These were not the ravings of imbecility, the sickly effusions of distempered brains;”
- Tending to produce nausea.
“a sickly smell; sickly sentimentality”
“‘Oh, what is that glides quickly where velvet flowers grow thickly, Their scent comes rich and sickly?’—‘A scaled and hooded worm.’”
- Overly sweet.
“[…] he was again tasting the sickly welter of melted ice cream on his plate.”
“After a meal of bread, bacon, rum and bitter stewed tea sickly with sugar, we went up through the broken trees to the east of the village and up a long trench to battalion headquarters.”
- Marked by the occurrence of illness or disease (of a period of time).
“This physic but prolongs thy sickly days.”
“a. 1768, Laurence Sterne, undated letter in Original Letters, London: Logographic Press, 1788, pp. 110-111, … if I thought the sentiments of your last letter were not the sentiments of a sickly moment—if I could be made to believe, for an instant, that they proceeded from you, in a sober, reflecting condition of your mind—I should give you over as incurable,”
- Tending to produce disease or poor health.
“a sickly autumn; a sickly climate”
“Has some sickly eastern waste Sent us a wind to parch us at a blast?”
adv
Etymology: From sick + -ly.
- In a sick manner; in a way that reflects or causes sickness.
“sickly pale; to cough sickly”
“[…] he sickly guess’d How lone he was once more, and sadly press’d His empty arms together […]”
verb
Etymology: From Middle English seekly, sekely, siklich, sekeliche, equivalent to sick + -ly. Possibly a modification of Old English sīcle (“sickly”) and/or derived from Old Norse sjúkligr (“sickly”). Cognate with Dutch ziekelijk, Middle High German siechlich, Danish sygelig, Swedish sjuklig, Icelandic sjúklegur. The verb is from the adjective.
- To make (something) sickly.
“Thus conscience does make cowards of us all, And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,”
“Thy Drudge contrives, and in our full career Sicklies our hopes with the pale hue of Fear;”
- To become sickly.
“1889, Samuel Cox, An Expositor’s Notebook, London: Richard D. Dickinson, 7th edition, Chapter 26, p. 364, But the seven most prominent Apostles […] still hang together, their hearts tormented with eager yet sad questionings, their hopes fast sicklying over with the pale hues of doubt.”