Word.ws English Dictionary

sicken

/ˈsɪkən/

sicken verb: to make ill.

Verb

sicken (third-person singular simple present sickens, present participle sickening, simple past and past participle sickened)

  1. (transitive) To make ill.
    • The infection will sicken him until amputation is needed.
    • Donald Trump’s former top food safety official has accused the administration of a near “catastrophic” mismanagement of the cyclospora outbreak that has sickened thousands of people in the US.2026 July 25, Oliver Milman, “Former FDA official says US handling of cyclospora near ‘catastrophic level’”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 26 Jul 2026
  2. (intransitive) To become ill.
    • I will sicken if I don’t get some more exercise.
    • The judges that sat upon the jail, and numbers of those that attended,[…] sickened upon it and died.1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted...
  3. (transitive) To fill with disgust or abhorrence.
    • His arrogant behaviour sickens me.
    • In announcing the review, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the new health secretary, said in a statement that “antisemitism — like racism — is a spiritual and moral malady that sickens societies and kills people with lethalities comparable to history’s most deadly plagues.”2025 March 4, Sharon Otterman, “Trump Threatens Columbia With Millions in Cuts Over Antisemitism Claims”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 12 Mar 2025
  4. To lower the standing of.
    • Whenever I get booed by opposition fans it only makes me more determined to sicken them.2007, Euan Reedie, Alan Shearer: Portrait Of A Legend - Captain Fantastic, →ISBN
    • But instead of giving up, the Rangers team managed to grab a dramatic later winner from Kenny Miller to sicken St Mirren and lift the cup2011, Scott Burns, Walter Smith the Ibrox Gaffer: A Tribute to a Rangers Legend, →ISBN
  5. (intransitive) To be filled with disgust or abhorrence.
    • Mine eyes did sicken at the sight.1607, William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra
  6. (intransitive) To become disgusting or tedious.
    • The toiling pleasure sickens into pain.1770, Oliver Goldsmith, The Deserted Village
  7. (intransitive) To become weak; to decay; to languish.
    • All pleasures sicken, and all glories sink.1734, Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man

sicken meaning in Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Arabic

sicken in Tamil

நோயுறு

sicken in Malayalam

ശല്യപ്പെടുത്തുക, രോഗമുണ്ടാക്കുക, ഓക്കാനിപ്പിക്കുക, ഛർദ്ദിപ്പിക്കുക

sicken in Kannada

ಬೇನೆಬೀಳು, ಹೇಸು, ರೋಸು, ಹೇವರಿಸು

sicken in Arabic

to make ill
أَمْرَضَ ʔamraḍa

Examples of sicken in a sentence

  • What they intend sickens and frightens them, and they can never speak of it directly.
  • Are you sickened by the idea of more and more CIA hankypanky in Central America?
  • Author Myron Uhlberg, another son of deaf-mute parents, was sickened by the audistic treatment of his father in public.

All 20 example sentences with sicken

Forms of sicken

third-person singular presentsickens
present participlesickening
past participlesickened
pastsickened

Past tense of sicken: sickened

Origin of sicken

From Middle English sekenen, equivalent to sick + -en. Cognate with Danish sygne (“to pine”), Swedish sjukna (“to fall ill; become sick”), Norwegian sykne, Icelandic sjúkna (“to sicken; become sick”).

Words formed from sicken

Words that rhyme with sicken

Questions about sicken

What does sicken mean?
Sicken means to make ill.
What is sicken in Tamil?
Sicken in Tamil is நோயுறு. See Sicken meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is sicken?
Sicken is a verb.
How do you pronounce sicken?
Sicken is pronounced /ˈsɪkən/.
What is the past tense of sicken?
The past tense of sicken is sickened.

Words near sicken in the dictionary

  1. sicked up
  2. sickee
  3. sickees
  4. Sickelmore
  5. Sickelmores
  6. sicken
  7. sickened
  8. sickener
  9. sickeners
  10. sickenest
  11. sickeneth

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sicken (page history and authors); sicken (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sicken (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sicken (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-sicken.wav.

Cite this entry: “sicken.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sicken. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.