valetudinary
Americannoun
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valetudinaries
plural
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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.
I was first entertained by his lady and daughter, he himself being in bed with a cold, according to his valetudinary custom.
From Life of Johnson, Volume 3 1776-1780 by George Birkbeck Norman Hill
Beside these suffering men Lord George lay on a floor all night, having given up the minister's house in Musselburgh, which had been destined as his quarters, to those who were valetudinary.
From Memoirs of the Jacobites of 1715 and 1745 Volume III. by Mrs. Thomson
Instead of making him a valetudinary, this continual liability to death aided to make him a hero.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 01, No. 05, March, 1858 by Various
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 J. G. (John Gibson) Lockhart
The indulgence and accommodation which his sickness required, had taught him all the unpleasing and unsocial qualities of a valetudinary man.
From The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. in Nine Volumes Volume the Eighth: The Lives of the Poets, Volume II by Samuel Johnson
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.
