sicken
Americanverb
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to make or become sick, nauseated, or disgusted
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to show symptoms (of an illness)
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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sickensimple
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sickenssimple
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have sickenedperfect
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has sickenedperfect
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am sickeningprogressive
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are sickeningprogressive
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is sickeningprogressive
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have been sickeningperfect progressive
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has been sickeningperfect progressive
Past
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sickenedsimple
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had sickenedperfect
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was sickeningprogressive
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were sickeningprogressive
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had been sickeningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of sicken
1150–1200; Middle English seknen, sicnen; cognate with Old Norse sjūkna. See sick 1, -en 1
Explanation
Things that sicken you make you feel upset or ill. It might sicken you to realize that you've hit a squirrel with your car. When things sicken you, they either make you feel terrible — disgusted or horrified — or they make you physically sick. Eating a piece of moldy bread or some potato salad that's been sitting in the sun too long will probably sicken you. Reading a story about childhood hunger and poverty in the newspaper can also sicken you. The earliest meaning of sicken was "fall ill," from an Old English root, seoc, "ill, diseased, weak, or troubled."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The problem with this line is that unvaccinated children can sicken infants and immuno-compromised children who can’t be inoculated, leaving some disabled or worse.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 22, 2026
Microplastics, along with ultra-tiny nanoplastics, can kill or severely sicken marine life before entering the food web and ultimately ending up on our plates.
From Barron's ● Jan. 22, 2026
Scotland driving at Greece's heart in a bid to sicken them again after sickening them at Hampden earlier in the group.
From BBC ● Nov. 15, 2025
An infected flea, although rare, can sicken pets, which are vulnerable to the disease, Chopra said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2025
Bacterial infections sweep through their populations like the plagues of old; under the onset of a virus their hordes sicken and die.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
“Gossip is an evil that destroys social life, sickens people’s hearts and leads to nothing,” the 88-year-old pontiff admonished.
From Salon ● Dec. 21, 2024
Influenza, or flu, sickens millions of people across the globe each year and can lead to severe illness and death.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 1, 2024
Caerphilly Bird Rescue posted a comment about the video, saying it "sickens me to the stomach".
From BBC ● Dec. 4, 2023
‘I felt like I was robbed of time with my best friend. It just sickens me.’
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 16, 2023
It sickens me to think that such an evil man can feel pity.
From "Dread Nation" by Justina Ireland
Neither is responsible for the outbreak, and Sweetgreen’s customers haven’t even been sickened, but that doesn’t matter.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026
The salmonella outbreak overlaps with the nation’s largest-ever cyclospora outbreak, tied to shredded iceberg lettuce, that has sickened thousands of people over the past several weeks.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 6, 2026
To date, 15 states have reported high numbers of cyclosporiasis cases; the epicenter continues to be in Michigan, whose state public health department has reported more than 12,400 sickened residents, 279 hospitalizations and two deaths.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
A cyclosporiasis outbreak linked to shredded iceberg lettuce has sickened thousands across multiple states.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
“T. Ray was right about my mother,” I said, hearing myself say the words, feeling sickened by them.
From "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd
And I would be living within walking distance of a sickening number of farmers markets.
From Salon ● Aug. 4, 2026
There are also challenges for local businesses, which say customers are staying away because the stench is so sickening.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026
The Mexico striker could have died on the football pitch in November 2020 when a sickening head injury left him with a fractured skull.
From BBC ● Jun. 12, 2026
Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the incident "horrific" and "sickening" in a post on X.
From Barron's ● Jun. 9, 2026
She felt a nausea of the soul, a hideous and sickening despair, a melancholy weariness so profound that she was going to die of it.
From "The Subtle Knife" by Philip Pullman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
