valetudinary
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of valetudinary
1575–85; < Latin valētūdinārius sickly, equivalent to valētūdin- (stem of valētūdō ) good or bad state of health ( valē ( re ) to be well + -tūdō -tude ) + -ārius -ary
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.
An adagio may set a gouty father to sleep, and a capriccio may operate successfully on the nerves of a valetudinary mother.
From Primitive Psycho-Therapy and Quackery by Lawrence, Robert Means
Though valetudinary, he lived to be nearly ninety, and to welcome to Scotland his son, Colonel William Duncan, who, with the highest character for military and civil merit, had made a considerable fortune in India.
From Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Volume I (of 10) by Lockhart, J. G. (John Gibson)
Could a person in this condition execute violence against another?—I, feeble and valetudinary, with no inducement to engage—no ability to accomplish—no weapon wherewith to perpetrate such a fact;—without interest, without power, without motives, without means!
From Eugene Aram — Complete by Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron
It renders the habit of society dangerously valetudinary; it is taking periodical doses of mercury sublimate, and swallowing down repeated provocatives of cantharides to our love of liberty.
From The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 03 (of 12) by Burke, Edmund
The buoyant mountain trips we have touched upon, and more, are within almost instant call of every dispirited Pau valetudinary, and of farther travelers as well.
From A Midsummer Drive Through the Pyrenees by Dix, Edwin Asa
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.
