sickly

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.

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɪkli/

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 or wan.

   a sickly plant

   • Dryden

     The moon grows sickly at the sight of day.

3. Weak; faint; suggesting unhappiness.

   a sickly smile

4. Somewhat sick; disposed to illness; attended with disease.
   • Shakespeare

     This physic but prolongs thy sickly days.

5. Tending to produce disease; unwholesome.

   a sickly autumn; a sickly climate

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Cowper to this entry?)

6. Tending to produce nausea; sickening.

   a sickly smell; sickly sentimentality

7. Overly sweet.

• sicklify
• sickliness

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 […]

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.