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Showing results for sickly. Search instead for slickly.
Synonyms

sickly

American  
[sik-lee] / ˈsɪk li /

adjective

sicklier, sickliest

  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

  • sickliness noun

Etymology

Origin of sickly

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

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.

Working with his regular cinematographer Oleg Mutu, Loznitsa gives this prison — and authoritarianism itself — a sickly luster without ever denying its wretched stench.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 26, 2026

Born coughing, Patti Smith was a sickly kid.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 25, 2025

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

Even before ICE got him, he had been sickly.

From Slate • Oct. 27, 2025

They were no longer the brown of desert-tanned skin, and neither were they the gray of grime and sickly babies.

From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor

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.