sick Hear it!

sick1 definition

sick (sik)

adjective

  1. suffering from disease or illness; unwell; ill: in this sense, now rare or literary in England
  2. having nausea; vomiting or about to vomit: the predominant sense in England
  3. characteristic of or accompanying sickness a sick expression
  4. of or for sick people sick leave
  5. deeply disturbed or distressed; extremely upset, as by grief, disappointment, disgust, failure, etc.
  6. disgusted by reason of excess; annoyed or exasperated: usually with of sick of such excuses
    often sick and tired
  7. in poor condition; impaired; unsound
  8. having a great longing or nostalgia (for) sick for the hills
  9. of sickly color; pale
  10. having a discharge of the menses; menstruating
  11. mentally ill or emotionally disturbed
  12. Informal sadistic, morbid, or abnormally unwholesome a sick joke
  13. ☆ Agric.
    1. incapable of producing an adequate yield of a certain crop wheatsick soil
    2. infested with harmful microorganisms a sick field

Etymology: ME sik, seke < OE seoc, akin to Ger siech < IE base *seug-, to be troubled or grieved > Arm hiucanim, (I) am weakening

sick Idioms

the sick

sick or ill people collectively
sick2 definition

sick (sik)

transitive verb

sic

Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2005 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Alternate definitions:

idioms sick idiom

medical sick definition - medical

sick Synonyms

sick

modif.

ill, ailing, unwell, disordered, diseased, feeble, weak, impaired, suffering, feverish, nauseous, nauseated, imperfect, sickly, declining, unhealthy, morbid, rabid, indisposed, distempered, infected, invalid, delicate, infirm, frail, rickety, broken down, physically run down, confined, laid up, coming down with, under medication, bedridden, in poor health, hospitalized, quarantined, incurable, on the blink*, out of kilter*, peaked*, feeling poorly*, sick as a dog*, seedy*, in a bad way*, not so hot*, at a low ebb*, under the weather*, down in the mouth*, looking green about the gills*.

Antonyms healthy*, hearty*, well.

sick and ill both express the idea of being in bad health, affected with disease, etc., but sick is more commonly used than ill, which is somewhat formal he's a sick person; he is sick, or ill, with the flu; in British usage sick generally means affected with nausea; ailing usually suggests prolonged or even chronic poor health she has been ailing ever since her operation; indisposed suggests a slight, temporary illness or feeling of physical discomfort indisposed with a headache


Webster's New World Roget's A-Z Thesaurus Copyright © 1999 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

sick Usage Examples

Preposition: as

  • parrot: Taken as a whole, I was neither over the moon, nor sick as a parrot.

Modifies a noun

  • pilgrim: In all there were nearly 400 pilgrims including about 90 sick pilgrims.

Modifying Another Word

  • chronically: Fuel poverty remains a killer in Britain today despite repeated efforts by government, with older people and the chronically sick at most risk.

Used with adjective complement

  • feel: Feeling sick beyond belief, I would go home feeling I had been punished for things in a previous life.

Preposition: of

  • sight: However this was another species I was almost sick of the sight of by the end of the tour.

Preposition: with

  • flu: It pays to say something more specific like " hear your mother has been sick with the flu " .
sick usage examples (more)

The word usage examples above have been gathered from various sources to reflect current and historical usage. They do not represent the opinions of YourDictionary.com.

sick quotes

Sick as a parrot.

-Anonymous

Pictures of perfection as you know make me sick and wicked.

-Austen,Jane

Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.

-Bible (Old Testament)

sick quotes (more)

Webster's New World Dictionary of Quotations Copyright © 2005 by Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Published by Wiley, Hoboken, NJ. Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Link to this page:

Cite this page:

MLA Style

"sick." Webster's New World College Dictionary. 2009

  • Your Dictionary. 5 July 2009
  • <www.yourdictionary.com/sick>

APA Style

sick. (2009). In Webster's New World College Dictionary

  • Retrieved July 5th, 2009, from www.yourdictionary.com/sick

Comments:

Please or Register to post a comment