Showing results for "sickening"

• present participle of sicken.

SEE ALSO:

Slang dictionary results for sickening.

sickening

American  

[sik-uh-ning] / ˈsɪk ə nɪŋ /

adjective

1. causing or capable of causing sickness, especially nausea, disgust, or loathing.

   sickening arrogance.

   Synonyms:

   loathsome, disgusting, nauseating

---

sickening British  

/ ˈsɪkənɪŋ /

adjective

1. causing sickness or revulsion

2. informal extremely annoying

---

Other Word Forms

• sickeningly
  adverb

---

Etymology

Origin of sickening

First recorded in 1715–25; sicken + -ing ²

---

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

sickening

Indonesian schoolchildren prayed for rain on Thursday as another firefighter lost his life battling drought-fuelled blazes consuming forests and peatlands and blanketing parts of Southeast Asia in a sickening haze.

From Barron's ● Oct. 22, 2026

The cyclospora outbreak has become the nation’s largest of its kind, sickening thousands of people.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 18, 2026

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been a frequent critic of the food industry, which he has blamed for sickening Americans with ultraprocessed foods and chemicals.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026

And I would be living within walking distance of a sickening number of farmers markets.

From Salon ● Aug. 4, 2026

There were feathers tangled in her hair...a lot of them, piled on the floor beside her and, Clara realized with a sickening lurch, actively sprouting from the back of her neck.

From "Night Owls" by A.R. Vishny

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---

Related Words

• nasty
• putrid

---