sickly

English

Adjective

sickly (comparative sicklier, superlative sickliest)

1. Frequently ill; often in poor health; given to becoming ill.

   a sickly child

2. Having the appearance of sickness or ill health; appearing ill, infirm or unhealthy; pale.

   a sickly plant

3. Weak; faint; suggesting unhappiness.

   a sickly smile

Related terms

• sickliness

Translations

frequently ill

• Asturian: enfermizu (ast)
• Catalan: malaltís (ca), malaltós (ca), malaltús (ca)
• Finnish: sairaalloinen (fi)
• Galician: enfermizo (gl)
• German: kränklich (de), (Switzerland) fehlbar (de)
• Irish: leice (ga)

• Romanian: bolnăvicios (ro)
• Russian: боле́зненный (ru) (boléznennyj)
• Spanish: enfermizo (es) m, enclenque (es)
• Swedish: sjuklig (sv) c, sjukligt (sv) n, sjukliga (sv) pl
• Turkish: hastalıklı (tr)

having the appearance of sickness

• German: (persons) depending on the context: blass (de), fahl (de), kränklich (de), unwohl (de); (plants) welk (de)
• Irish: meata (ga)

• Russian: ча́хлый (ru) (čáxlyj)
• Spanish: enfermizo (es) m

weak, faint

• Catalan: malaltís (ca)
• Finnish: heikko (fi)
• German: schwächlich (de), (smile) fahl (de)

• Romanian: bolnăvicios (ro), slab (ro)
• Spanish: débil (es) m and f, triste (es) m and f

Verb

sickly (third-person singular simple present sicklies, present participle sicklying, simple past and past participle sicklied)

1. (transitive) To make sickly.
   • Shakespeare

     Sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought.

   • 1840, S. M. Heaton, George Heaton, Thoughts on the Litany, by a naval officer's orphan daughter (page 58)

     […] a cancer gnawing at the root of happiness, defeating every aim at permanent good in this world, and sicklying all sublunary joys […]

   • 1871, Gail Hamilton, Country living and country thinking (page 109)

     He evidently thinks the sweet little innocents never heard or thought of such a thing before, and would go on burying their curly heads in books, and sicklying their rosy faces with "the pale cast of thought" till the end of time […]

Adverb

sickly (comparative more sickly, superlative most sickly)

1. In a sick manner.
   • 2010, Rowan Somerville, The End of Sleep (page 66)

     The creaseless horizontal face of the giant smiled sickly, leering.