stricken

[ strik-uhn ]

verb

1. a past participle of strike.

adjective

1. hit or wounded by a weapon, missile, or the like.
2. beset or afflicted, as with disease, trouble, or sorrow:

   stricken areas; a stricken family.

3. deeply affected, as with grief, fear, or other emotions.
4. characterized by or showing the effects of affliction, trouble, misfortune, a mental blow, etc.:

   stricken features.

stricken

/ ˈstrɪkən /

adjective

1. laid low, as by disease or sickness
2. deeply affected, as by grief, love, etc
3. archaic.
   wounded or injured

Derived Forms

• ˈstrickenly, adverb

Other Words From

• stricken·ly adverb
• un·stricken adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of stricken¹

First recorded in 1530–40

Word History and Origins

Origin of stricken¹

C14: past participle of strike

Example Sentences

In order to recover locked-up data, ransomware-stricken firms often have few options but to meet hackers’ extortion demands—even though doing so by no means guarantees data recovery.

From Fortune

The broadband service has helped both emergency responders and families in wildfire-stricken areas.

From Ars Technica

Two weeks later, when a second pair of Covid-stricken brothers, both in their 20s, also appeared in the Netherlands, geneticists were called in to investigate.

From Fortune

Boeing is preparing to offer buyouts to employees for a second time this year as the virus-stricken planemaker extends its workforce cuts beyond the original 10% target unveiled in April.

From Fortune

There are also potentially toxic pesticides and pollutants spewed by the burning of everything from fossil fuels to drought-stricken forests.

From Science News For Students

Then came a call to pick up two stricken American health workers.

From The Daily Beast

But the courage with which he worked in his Ebola-stricken native land is inarguable.

From The Daily Beast

Yama survives with her 15-year-old brother, the only family member not stricken by the virus.

From The Daily Beast

He was helping to evacuate people from the stricken North Tower when the second plane hit.

From The Daily Beast

It turns out poor, devastatingly handsome, AIDS-stricken Ted was Jewish.

From The Daily Beast

Two artillery subalterns who had fought their way through a mob stricken with panic for the moment, soon arrived.

From Project Gutenberg

She didn't move for a minute, and the shocked, stricken look in her eyes grew more intense.

From Project Gutenberg

He might have been an insufferable young man for a poverty-stricken teacher of French to have as a fellow-lodger; but he was not.

From Project Gutenberg

Then, of a sudden, the little colour faded from her cheeks again, and she seemed stricken with a silence.

From Project Gutenberg

But not too big for the ragged old arm that felled it down as an axe fells the last rings of a stricken tree.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• afflicted