sickly
- adjective
- /ˈsɪkli/
- As a child, he was often sickly and frequently missed school due to illness.
- a sickly child
- weak and sickly
He sounds like a weird, gross, sickly pale motherfucker right here.
- He sounds like a weird, gross, sickly pale motherfucker right here.
- OK, looking quite sickly in this mirror today.
- So he's definitely a much more sickly child than Allah.
- And I don't know how to explain it, but I just feel kind of sickly.
- So he says, we speak of the sickly, we mean those who seem to possess no such powers.
- OK, so I will be putting a bit of colour on because you can look quite sickly.
- Or, you know, this light is a sickly light, you know, and she, she changes over time.
- But he was so sickly as a child that he had to be carried around much of the time.
Examples
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But she was so little, so sickly, from wee-born to a pup, and you, Cadi, you were so full of life and spunk.
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She has one daughter, Anne, who is unfortunately of a sickly constitution.
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I was a very sickly child, like many people.
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I asked God how a sickly little boy could think he owned me.
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Maybe that was the first sign I was going to be sickly and die young.
Fiction book (1990) -
OK, looking quite sickly in this mirror today.
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"Oh, this guy looks sickly."
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About the siege, about the old days, about her youth, about how sickly Danny had been as a baby.
Fiction book (1993) -
She was a bit sickly in her early years.
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His lips had gone white, and a sickly grey cast had descended over his face.
Fiction book (1990)
Synonyms
Not well because of illness
Not feeling well because of sickness
Not good for your health and likely to cause illness
Feeling slightly ill and not your usual self
Feeling slightly sick or uncomfortable
Looking very tired and pale from worry, illness, or lack of food
A yellow or pale brown skin color that looks unhealthy
Having poor health and often getting sick
Appearing weak and sick and needing care
Feeling ill or not well
Looking pale and weak, as if unwell
Pale in the face and looking sick or unhappy
Antonyms
How Sick
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
The word sickly comes from the simple word sick ('ill') plus the ending -ly which means 'in a ... way' or 'like'. So sickly literally means 'in an ill way', which is why we use it for someone who is often ill or who looks weak and unhealthy.