to get sick
378
1.0
- phrasal verb
- /ɡɛt sɪk/
:
enfermarse
- Quite a few people get sick at first; it's nothing to be embarrassed about.
- people get sick
- children get sick
- get sick every day
And apparently he got sick from being high and he threw up.
- And apparently he got sick from being high and he threw up.
- And he'd have periods where he'd get sick, very sick.
- His assistant, his secretary at admin, got sick and she had the flu.
- OK, some people may not get sick, but some people may.
- My kid just got sick and I thought he couldn't breathe.
- But that race was really challenging because I got sick two weeks before the race.
- Fewer people are dying when they get sick, far fewer people are dying.
- Let's say I get sick and I can't work.
- I'm tired of seeing people get sick, young and old.
- Remember, I left him when my mother got sick in New Orleans.
- The water was choppy like we were and I did not get sick at all.
- So Louis Pasteur was you get sick because of germs.
- How do you not get sick doing that?
Examples
-
I felt amazing and then I got sick at the beginning of September.
-
How do you not get sick doing that?
-
What happens if one of us gets sick or a lot of us get sick at the same time?
Academic text (2003) -
My kid just got sick and I thought he couldn't breathe.
-
Let's say I get sick and I can't work.
-
I was... stationed in Washington, but I got sick and now I'm on leave and I'm gonna spend it in New York.
-
Lutz and Hans got sick and had to turn back.
-
I usually avoid cold weather because I'm afraid I might get sick.
-
After the party, I realized I had got sick from something I ate.
-
If you don't wash your hands often, you could get sick during flu season.
Synonyms
9
5.6
To become sick suddenly
5
3.0
Begin to feel ill
3
1.8
To be sick or slightly ill
Antonyms
How Sick
93
4.3
9
5.6
378
1.0
3
1.8
- Informal
5
6.3
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to become ill' is directly and compositionally derived from 'get' (to become/undergo) + 'sick' (unwell); a B1 learner who knows both words can infer the MWE's meaning. This change-of-state pattern (get + adjective) is common cross-linguistically and follows standard English composition, so the expression is immediately comprehensible rather than idiomatic.
Etymology
Get sick may come from a simple image: you get (receive) an illness, as if you caught a cold from someone, so sick is what you become. That's why it means 'to become ill'.