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
One would think the viruses and bacteria that have tormented humanity since time immemorial would never find a friend in the species — human beings — they so routinely sicken and kill.
From Salon ● Feb. 5, 2025
Donay tells the central guard I will sicken if he does not give me cardboard.
From "Taste of Salt: A Story of Modern Haiti" by Frances Temple
But the disease would once again become endemic, meaning ever-present at some baseline level, like influenza, which sickens millions and kills thousands in the U.S. every year.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 25, 2025
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
And that are media continues to ignore/dismiss a very obvious reality sickens me.
From Salon ● Sep. 8, 2023
As it sickens and kills, cholera is also undermining Malawi’s social fabric.
From New York Times ● Jan. 22, 2023
Faugh! it sickens me to think of it.
From "Dracula" by Bram Stoker
It’s the most consumed leafy produce in the U.S., as Americans have been reminded by cyclospora outbreaks that have sickened thousands over the past few months.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
To start, if a person gets sickened from a food-borne illness, they might not seek medical care, Stevens said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026
In last Friday’s newsletter, we told you about a foodborne parasitic outbreak that has sickened thousands of people across several states.
From Slate ● Jul. 24, 2026
Nearly 2,000 people who ate food from Taco Bell have been sickened in those nine states during the outbreak, the agency said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
It was a barbed arrow-head in my breast; it tore me when I tried to extract it; it sickened me when remembrance thrust it farther in.
From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë
Market volatility has erased some funds’ value with sickening speed—most famously 2018’s “Volmageddon.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 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
Lam said the idea that Ahmed could not be deported due to a "decades-old law is as just absurd as it is sickening".
From BBC ● Jul. 6, 2026
Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the incident "horrific" and "sickening" in a post on X.
From Barron's ● Jun. 9, 2026
The thought curdled in Koffi's stomach, sickening, and she knew at once she couldn’t do that either.
From "Beasts of Prey" by Ayana Gray
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.
