Meaning

11 senses
  1. Frequently ill or in poor health; weakly.

    a sickly child

    kränklich, fehlbar, kränkelnd

    боле́зненныйboléznennyj

  2. Not in good health; (somewhat) sick.

  3. Characterized by poor or unhealthy growth. (of a plant)

    unhealthy looking

  4. Appearing ill, infirm or unhealthy; giving the appearance of illness.

    a sickly pallor

    blass, fahl, kränklich

    ча́хлыйčáxlyj

    somewhat ill or prone to illness

  5. Shedding a relatively small amount of light; (of light) not very bright.

  6. Lacking intensity or vigour.

    a sickly smile

    a sickly winter sun

    schwächlich, fahl, schwach

  7. Associated with poor moral or mental well-being.

  8. Tending to produce nausea.

    a sickly smell; sickly sentimentality

  9. Overly sweet.

    übersüß

  10. (obsolete)Marked by the occurrence of illness or disease (of a period of time).

  11. (obsolete)Tending to produce disease or poor health.

    a sickly autumn; a sickly climate

Examples

11 sentences
  1. My desire to become a doctor grew out of looking after my sickly brother.

    deMein Wunsch, Arzt zu werden, entstand, als ich mich um meinen kränkelnden Bruder kümmerte.

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  2. Yanni's skin was pale and sickly.

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  3. The liquor gave off a sickly odor.

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  4. Ziri was dating a sickly-looking girl.

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  5. Sho was 12 years old, sickly, and somewhat dull.

    deSho war 12 Jahre alt, kränklich und etwas dumm.

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Translations

7 languages
Русский
By meaning 2
frequently ill:
appearing ill:
Deutsch
By meaning 4
frequently ill:
appearing ill:
lacking intensity or vigour:
overly sweet:

Origin

From Middle English seekly, sekely, siklich, sekeliche, equivalent to sick + -ly. Possibly

From Middle English seekly, sekely, siklich, sekeliche, equivalent to sick + -ly. Possibly a modification of Old English sīcle (“sickly”) and/or derived from Old Norse sjúkligr (“sickly”). Cognate with Dutch ziekelijk, Middle High German siechlich, Danish sygelig, Swedish sjuklig, Icelandic sjúklegur. The verb is from the adjective.

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

sicklier, sickliest
Comparativesicklier Lesson
Superlativesickliest Lesson

regular

Synonyms

22 synonyms

Word family

4 related words

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
sickly — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto