SICK

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does sick mean? 

• SICK (noun)
  The noun SICK has 1 sense:

1. people who are sick

  Familiarity information: SICK used as a noun is very rare.

• SICK (adjective)
  The adjective SICK has 7 senses:

1. affected by an impairment of normal physical or mental function

2. feeling nausea; feeling about to vomit

3. affected with madness or insanity

4. having a strong distaste from surfeit

5. (of light) lacking in intensity or brightness; dim or feeble

6. deeply affected by a strong feeling

7. shockingly repellent; inspiring horror

  Familiarity information: SICK used as an adjective is common.

• SICK (verb)
  The verb SICK has 1 sense:

1. eject the contents of the stomach through the mouth

  Familiarity information: SICK used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SICK (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

People who are sick

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Context example:

they devote their lives to caring for the sick

Hypernyms ("sick" is a kind of...):

people ((plural) any group of human beings (men or women or children) collectively)

Derivation:

sick (eject the contents of the stomach through the mouth)

sick (affected with madness or insanity)

sick (affected by an impairment of normal physical or mental function)

• SICK (adjective)

Comparative: sicker   
Superlative: sickest   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Affected by an impairment of normal physical or mental function

Synonyms:

ill; sick

Context example:

ill from the monotony of his suffering

Similar:

funny (experiencing odd bodily sensations)

dizzy; giddy; vertiginous; woozy (having or causing a whirling sensation; liable to falling)

gouty (suffering from gout)

green (looking pale and unhealthy)

laid low; stricken (put out of action (by illness))

laid up (ill and usually confined)

milk-sick (affected with or related to milk sickness)

nauseated; nauseous; queasy; sick; sickish (feeling nausea; feeling about to vomit)

palsied (affected with palsy or uncontrollable tremor)

paralytic; paralyzed (affected with paralysis)

paraplegic (suffering complete paralysis of the lower half of the body usually resulting from damage to the spinal cord)

rachitic; rickety (affected with, suffering from, or characteristic of rickets)

scrofulous (afflicted with scrofula)

sneezy (inclined to sneeze)

spastic (suffering from spastic paralysis)

tubercular; tuberculous (constituting or afflicted with or caused by tuberculosis or the tubercle bacillus)

unhealed (not healed)

upset (mildly physically distressed)

faint; light; light-headed; lightheaded; swooning (weak and likely to lose consciousness)

afflicted; stricken (grievously affected especially by disease)

aguish (affected by ague)

ailing; indisposed; peaked; poorly; seedy; sickly; under the weather; unwell (somewhat ill or prone to illness)

air sick; airsick; carsick; seasick (experiencing motion sickness)

autistic (characteristic of or affected with autism)

bedfast; bedrid; bedridden; sick-abed (confined to bed (by illness))

bilious; liverish; livery (suffering from or suggesting a liver disorder or gastric distress)

bronchitic (suffering from or prone to bronchitis)

consumptive (afflicted with or associated with pulmonary tuberculosis)

convalescent; recovering (returning to health after illness or debility)

delirious; hallucinating (experiencing delirium)

diabetic (suffering from diabetes)

dyspeptic (suffering from dyspepsia)

feverish; feverous (having or affected by a fever)

Also:

unhealthy (not in or exhibiting good health in body or mind)

unfit (not in good physical or mental condition; out of condition)

Derivation:

sick (people who are sick)

sickness (impairment of normal physiological function affecting part or all of an organism)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Feeling nausea; feeling about to vomit

Synonyms:

nauseated; nauseous; queasy; sick; sickish

Similar:

ill; sick (affected by an impairment of normal physical or mental function)

Derivation:

sickness (the state that precedes vomiting)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Affected with madness or insanity

Synonyms:

brainsick; crazy; demented; disturbed; mad; sick; unbalanced; unhinged

Context example:

a man who had gone mad

Similar:

insane (afflicted with or characteristic of mental derangement)

Derivation:

sick (people who are sick)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Having a strong distaste from surfeit

Synonyms:

disgusted; fed up; sick; sick of; tired of

Context example:

tired of the noise and smoke

Similar:

displeased (not pleased; experiencing or manifesting displeasure)

Sense 5

Meaning:

(of light) lacking in intensity or brightness; dim or feeble

Synonyms:

pale; pallid; sick; wan

Context example:

the wan light of dawn

Similar:

weak (wanting in physical strength)

Sense 6

Meaning:

Deeply affected by a strong feeling

Context example:

she was sick with longing

Similar:

affected; moved; stirred; touched (being excited or provoked to the expression of an emotion)

Sense 7

Meaning:

Shockingly repellent; inspiring horror

Synonyms:

ghastly; grim; grisly; gruesome; macabre; sick

Context example:

macabre tortures conceived by madmen

Similar:

alarming (frightening because of an awareness of danger)

• SICK (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Eject the contents of the stomach through the mouth

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Synonyms:

barf; be sick; cast; cat; chuck; disgorge; honk; puke; purge; regorge; regurgitate; retch; sick; spew; spue; throw up; upchuck; vomit; vomit up

Context example:

The patient regurgitated the food we gave him last night

Hypernyms (to "sick" is one way to...):

egest; eliminate; excrete; pass (eliminate from the body)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

sick (people who are sick)

 Context examples 

The infection does not make cats sick.

(Cat Scratch Disease, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

Adults, babies, teenagers, pregnant women, and those with weak immune systems tend to get sicker from it.

(Chickenpox, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

Vaccines help make you immune to serious diseases without getting sick first.

(Childhood Immunization, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

I am sick of the subject.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Everything was swimming before my eyes, and I turned sick.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

When a person is sick, their body may need extra calories to fight fever or other problems.

(Calorie, NCI Dictionary)

"I'm very sick," was the answer.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Some may become sick in the first days of life or develop infections.

(Birth Weight, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

But it turned us absolutely sick.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It is a hope that makes me sick, for it may deceive us.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)