Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com
Showing results for sickly. Search instead for sicklied.
Synonyms

sickly

American  
[sik-lee] / ˈsɪk li /

adjective

sicklier, comparative sickliest superlative
  1. not strong; unhealthy; ailing.

    Synonyms:
    infirm, feeble, sick, puny, weak, frail
  2. of, connected with, or arising from ill health.

    a sickly complexion.

  3. marked by the prevalence of ill health, as a region.

    the epidemic left the town sickly.

  4. causing sickness.

  5. nauseating.

  6. maudlin and insipid; mawkish.

    sickly sentimentality.

  7. faint or feeble, as light or color.


adverb

  1. in a sick or sickly manner.

verb (used with object)

sicklied, sicklying
  1. to cover with a sickly hue.

sickly British  
/ ˈsɪklɪ /

adjective

  1. disposed to frequent ailments; not healthy; weak

  2. of, relating to, or caused by sickness

  3. (of a smell, taste, etc) causing revulsion or nausea

  4. (of light or colour) faint or feeble

  5. mawkish; insipid

    sickly affectation

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

adverb

  1. in a sick or sickly manner

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

Inflected Forms

Adjectives

Etymology

Origin of sickly

1300–50; Middle English siklich, sekly (adj.). See sick 1, -ly

Explanation

If you're frequently ill, or often under the weather, you're sickly. A sickly child tends to miss a lot of school. Sickly people aren't in perfect health — they are prone to coming down with illnesses, or they just generally don't feel well. You can also describe someone as appearing sickly, if their faces are pale and unhealthy-looking. This "habitually ailing" meaning dates from the fourteenth century, and for a brief time it was also used to mean "causing illness."

Keep Reading on Vocabulary.com

Vocabulary lists containing sickly

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 subtropical southern Japanese region boasts some of the world's most biodiverse hubs of normally multicoloured coral, but a 2024 marine heatwave created "graveyards" of ghostly pale or sickly brown organisms.

From Barron's Jul. 29, 2026

The movie’s title and setting—an endless expanse of deserted, largely furniture-free office space bathed in sickly yellow—come from a crowd-sourced urban legend or “creepypasta” that spread online before the pandemic.

From The Wall Street Journal May 28, 2026

Smog compromised the health of kids and the sickly and the elderly.

From Los Angeles Times Mar. 26, 2026

Smith was a sickly child, contracting bronchial pneumonia, tuberculosis, German measles, mumps and chicken pox which kept her in "periods of lengthy bed rest".

From BBC Nov. 4, 2025

It was indeed an adult version of the sickly white faces of the boys in the playground.

From "How the García Girls Lost Their Accents" by Julia Alvarez

He’s big, menacing and worthy to own, but I would have preferred his older, sicklier version in which he acted as a caretaker for Professor X in the film “Logan.”

From Washington Times May 29, 2019

The Greek lamp of Monarchism, which has been burning with an ever sicklier flame, went out.

From Time Magazine Archive

Its dark-green hue, its sicklier tints all fail, And rip'ening harvest rustles in the gale.

From The Farmer's Boy A Rural Poem by Bloomfield, Robert

As for Ogden, his pale face grew a shade sicklier, and his green eyes more fishy.

From One Of Them by Lever, Charles James

"Master!" said Wylie, and his sallow face grew sallower and sicklier.

From The O'Donoghue Tale Of Ireland Fifty Years Ago by Lever, Charles James

It’s a family joke that they have the sickliest pets in history.

From Washington Post Dec. 15, 2021

A bunged-up court system made foreclosure all but impossible, so owners of even the sickliest of companies could spend lavishly without fear of repercussions.

From Economist Apr. 19, 2018

This is also a bank that marketed complex derivatives to Europe’s sickliest bank, Monte dei Paschi in Italy.

From New York Times Dec. 30, 2016

Healthiest section of the U. S. from the typhoid aspect is New England; sickliest, the east south-central region.

From Time Magazine Archive

It seemed to her the sickliest thing,—a thing quite unendurable.

From The New Machiavelli by Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)

They are Reds who have been, if not sicklied o'er, at least noticeably bleached, if not by the pale cast of thought, then by the bright sun of circumstance.

From Time Magazine Archive

In the middle of a second act seance various ectoplasmic entities wander about the darkness sicklied o'er with the pale cast of greenish spotlights.

From Time Magazine Archive

Oh, nothing, I'm just a little sicklied o'er ...

From Time Magazine Archive

The town -- the greater Bay Area, for that matter -- is sicklied o'er with restaurants.

From Time Magazine Archive

Not that he is without courage; when his nest is in question he will take great risks; but in general his manner is dispirited, "sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought."

From Birds in the Bush by Torrey, Bradford

Growing quite staid in manner, the weight of India adding gravity to his looks, sicklying his young face o'er with pale cast of thought.

From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 102, May 7, 1892 by Various

And therefore West, after an hour of delightful tête-à-tête in the charming little back parlor, stiffened himself up, his brow sicklying o'er with the pale cast of disagreeable thought, and began to make it.

From Queed by Crosby, Raymond Moreau

They believe that on public occasions the chuprassies have sometimes the power of sicklying them o'er with the pale cast of neglect.

From Twenty-One Days in India; and, the Teapot Series by Aberigh-Mackay, George Robert

He imagined the first beginnings of suspicion; he saw it filming the eyes of his acquaintances, then of his friends, and at last sicklying over the face even of his brother Silas.

From Two Days' Solitary Imprisonment 1898 by Bellamy, Edward

No sicklying taint of sorrow overlies the lucid lake of liquid love, upon which, hand in hand, Aline and I are to float into eternity!

From The Complete Plays of Gilbert and Sullivan by Gilbert, W. S. (William Schwenck), Sir

Vocabulary.com logo
by dictionary.com

Join 12,000,000 vocabulary learners

Start learning new words today on VocabTrainer.
You'll remember them forever.

Start training