sickly.
Frequently ill or in poor health; weakly.
Meaning & usage
Frequently ill or in poor health; weakly.
a sickly child
Not in good health; (somewhat) sick.
Characterized by poor or unhealthy growth. (of a plant)
Appearing ill, infirm or unhealthy; giving the appearance of illness.
a sickly pallor
Shedding a relatively small amount of light; (of light) not very bright.
Lacking intensity or vigour.
a sickly smile
a sickly winter sun
Associated with poor moral or mental well-being.
Tending to produce nausea.
a sickly smell; sickly sentimentality
Overly sweet.
Marked by the occurrence of illness or disease (of a period of time).
Tending to produce disease or poor health.
a sickly autumn; a sickly climate
Where this word comes from
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.
To make (something) sickly.
To become sickly.
Where this word comes from
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.
In a sick manner; in a way that reflects or causes sickness.
sickly pale; to cough sickly
Where this word comes from
From sick + -ly.
Try it on your idea.
sickly has 6 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.
These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.
Explore the name generatorA word with a source.
Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.