Meaning of sickly in English:

sickly

adjectivesicklier, sickliest

1Often ill; in poor health.
‘she was a thin, sickly child’
- ‘The predator weeds out the weak and the sickly (those incapable of participation).’
- ‘In history books, one can find descriptions of this Bulgarian king as ‘weak, sickly, meek and a poor statesman’.’
- ‘King was a sickly child, once bedridden for a year, and at the age of four he one day returned home silently after playing with a friend and crawled into bed.’
- ‘A real man, I used to say, no matter how sickly or incapacitated, should pick up a case by its handle and carry it like a man.’
- ‘During the 19th century it had a reputation in Britain as a restorative food for invalids and sickly children, and was added to their diet in various forms.’
- ‘Colonel Brandon mentions wearing one, and Marianne takes this as a sign he is old and sickly, and incapable of being a lover.’
- ‘Rumoured to be sickly, deformed and incapable of producing heirs, Carlos was widely held to have only a few years to live.’
- ‘My true love returned a fortnight later, clearly shocked to see such a pale, weak and sickly frame propped up against a mountain of pillows.’
- ‘When I was a child, I was a weak, sickly little thing.’
- ‘He had always been more comfortable with women; as a young boy, he was sickly and weak and preferred to stay at home with his mother and sisters rather than play with the boys.’
- ‘A baby that appeared weak or sickly at birth, or had even a minor birth defect such a cleft pallet, hair lip, or cleft foot, or was in some other way imperfect was killed.’
- ‘As a tyke, little Bobby Jones was a frail, sickly kid, living under the auspices of protective parents, and a Puritanical grandfather.’
- ‘It was a tough birth, and I was a frail, sickly infant.’
- ‘Physically he gives Alexei a gentle, frail, almost sickly presence that naturally arouses women's protective instincts.’
- ‘I left thoroughly turned-off by the film's weak, sickly ending.’
- ‘‘Remove these weak and sickly ones,’ he commanded of the soldiers that accompanied him.’
- ‘The incessant screech grew in a massive crescendo of sound, and made Vincent's entire body feel sickly and weak.’
- ‘His wife is frail and sickly, and he is often without work.’
- ‘While there were leaves, they were sickly and frail and barely hanging on from their branches.’
- ‘Scrawny and pale, with a mop of scruffy black hair and watery grey eyes, he looked sickly and weak.’
unhealthy, in poor health, chronically ill, often ill, always ill
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1. 1.1(of a person's complexion or expression) indicative of poor health.
  ‘his usual sickly pallor’
  ‘If there was anything to be salvaged from the situation, it might've been said to have been worth it for the sickly expression on Rupert's face.’
  ‘Not only that, but his formerly vibrant face was now marred by a sickly pallor and shadows under his eyes.’
  ‘Her sun baked skin had deteriorated to a grey, sickly pallor and her eyes had lost its bright sparkle.’
  ‘He was described as having ‘a sickly, pasty complexion’.’
  ‘Haru finally stated matter-of-factly; his face appearing childish from the sickly, sleepy expression he was wearing.’
  ‘Looking over, he saw a sickly, shocked expression on Jack's face.’
  ‘Her figure was thin from undernourishment and her complexion a morose sickly gray.’
  ‘She could have easily passed for a corpse, complete with a sickly pale complexion and dark circles under blood-shot eyes.’
  ‘The sun never made quite an effect on him, resulting in a sickly pale complexion, which was the basis of many a taunt.’
  ‘He needed a shave, his complexion was pale and sickly and he looked drastically deprived of sleep.’
  ‘When I was a baby, my eyes were as black as my hair and I recall my brothers calling me sickly for my pale pallor, though I was never ill.’
  ‘This King, of course, was a sickly neurotic, whom every day brought nearer to complete mental disability.’
  pale, wan, pasty, colourless, sallow, pallid, white, waxen, ashen
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2. 1.2literary (of a place or climate) causing or characterized by unhealthiness.
  ‘a sickly vaporous swamp’
  ‘The only sort of eye to be found in Dunham's paintings puts in an appearance in Beautiful Dirt Valley: the disembodied eye of heaven hovering in a sickly sky.’
  ‘Aaron went back to his sickly field and farmhouse.’
  ‘The yellow street lights caused the world to glow sickly as he moved through the downtown South District.’
  ‘Variations in vineyard temperatures deliver flavours ranging from apples to tinned pineapple or, in extreme circumstances, to sickly shrivelled sultanas.’
  ‘As his skin blackened, a sickly aroma exploded throughout the alley.’
  ‘Without them the place was sickly quiet, but Adam was too tired to do anything about it.’
  ‘So a bit of help from the sickly oil fields themselves is welcome.’
  ‘In the corner of his room a sickly yellow glow was permeating through his wall, passing though it and away.’
2(of a flavour, smell, colour, etc.) unpleasant in a way that induces discomfort or nausea.
‘the walls were painted a sickly green’
‘she liked her coffee sweet and sickly’
- ‘The walls were the same sickly colour, the smell was the same of dense human aromas, and my feelings of determination and acceptance were one and the same.’
- ‘I entered the school and was met by the sweet, sickly smell of flowers and the dead.’
- ‘The atmosphere seemed stifling, the sweet, sickly smell in the air was unbearable.’
- ‘In this state they contain small amounts of a poisonous alkaloid, and have a sickly, unpleasant smell and taste.’
- ‘Bright white and blue flowers bloomed from them and smelled almost sickly sweet.’
- ‘The sickly sweet smell is inescapable at local rock shows…’
- ‘As I walked from work in the late winter Melbourne sunshine yesterday I smelled the sickly, sweet stench of death.’
- ‘When a bug has fed it emits a sickly sweet smell to attract hungry relatives: a giveaway sign of infestation.’
- ‘Just round the corner we pass Camden Market, a hypermarket of henna and hemp, where the pavements are packed and there's a rather different sickly sweet smell in the air.’
- ‘There was a sickly sweet smell surrounding them.’
- ‘There was a sickly sweet smell that surrounded it.’
- ‘His normally pale skin was a sickly green colour with a glistening sheen of sweat, his hair flopped lifelessly as the ship lurched from side to side, his eyes were drooping and he looked exhausted.’
- ‘Her pale face stood out against the warm, creamy colours of the pillows and sheets, some of the smaller bruises starting to turn the sickly colour of yellow and brown.’
- ‘He feels like himself, but is trapped in a dog's body, describing in graphic detail the many pungent, metallic, meaty and sickly smells all around him.’
- ‘Usually I hated the sickly smell of vanilla but today it was soothing.’
- ‘Flora saw her chance, lunged, and ripped into Moonlights chest and pulled out her heart, which was glowing a sickly purple.’
- ‘I've had a lot of anticlimactic hot chocolate drinks lately: they're all syrupy, sickly and goopy.’
- ‘It was soupy and gloopy, sickly and sour, and downright wonderful.’
- ‘I enjoyed my creme brûlée, although the excess sugar was a bit sickly.’
bilious, nauseating, distasteful, unattractive
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1. 2.1Excessively sentimental or mawkish.
  ‘a sickly fable of delicate young lovers’
  ‘Your Silent Nights and Joy to the Worlds manage to be special and festive without first being coated with a cubic kilometre of sickly sentimentality.’
  ‘Those with an aversion to sickly sentiment should look away now.’
  ‘It displays the essence of Chopin's music that surely Fokine desired and rescues it from the sickly sentiment and yards of tulle that Les Sylphides usually heralds.’
  ‘Behind all its smug hypocrisy and sickly sentimentality are the sinister outlines of the class war.’
  ‘I support you for the comments you made, and am glad you haven't retracted your views on the sickly sentimentality which is demeaning and undermining the true Britishness of our country.’
  ‘When he asked the question, he shifted back to a patronising, sickly treacle-sweet voice.’
  ‘The lyrics are so endearing, the sentiment so sickly sweet, that you can't help but sing along in faux earnest.’
  ‘Describing an object, sentiment or situation which is cute in a sickly, laughable, boring, old, shudderingly childish and overly sweet way.’
  ‘‘Bon,’ Mademoiselle Piera said from the table, flashing Ryan her best sickly saccharine smile.’
  ‘Hawley achieves the difficult task of walking the tightrope between sweet and sickly sweet, between sentiment and sentimentality.’
  sentimental, over-sentimental, overemotional, mawkish, cloying, sugary, syrupy, saccharine, sickening, nauseating, maudlin, lachrymose, banal, trite
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