sicker
Syllables: sic·ker/ˈsɪkɚ/
sicker is the comparative form of sick.
Adjective
sicker
- Certain.
- I'm sicker that he's not home.
- Secure; safe.
- To walk a sicker path
- But ſicker ſo it is, as the bꝛight ſtarre / Seemeth ay greater, when it is farre:1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “September. Ægloga Nona.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […], →OCLC, folio 36, recto
Adverb
sicker
Meaning of sick
Adjective
sick (comparative sicker, superlative sickest)
- In poor health; ill.
- We have to care for the sick.
- [with with] Afflicted by (a specific condition, usually medical).
- She was sick all day with the flu.
- Having an urge to vomit.
- My daughter was violently sick three times in the night.
- Mentally unstable, disturbed.
- You sick bastard!
- In bad taste.
- That’s a sick joke.
- [with of] Tired of or annoyed by (something that has lasted a long time or often recurs).
- sick and tired of the whining—sick of waiting—'sick of politics
Verb
sicker (third-person singular simple present sickers, present participle sickering, simple past and past participle sickered)
- To percolate, trickle, or seep; to ooze, as water through a crack.
- No drop of water fell from the hot blue
Or sickered from the skeleton of earth.1917, Gerhart Hauptmann, Ludwig Lewisohn, The Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann, volume 7, page 185 - This cause had sickered into his soul; it had been branded upon his forehead somehow, by some hand; he knew not how nor by whom.1926, Jakob Wassermann, Wedlock, volume 10, page 217
- No drop of water fell from the hot blue
Forms of sicker
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| alternative form | siker |
| alternative form | siccer |
| alternative form | siccar |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | sickers |
| present participle | sickering |
| past participle | sickered |
| past | sickered |
| alternative form | sigger |
| alternative form | zigger |
Origin of sicker
Inherited from Middle English siker, sikker, sykkere, secre, seccre, from Old English sēocra (“sicker”), equivalent to sick + -er.
From Middle English siker, from Old English sicer, sicor, from Proto-West Germanic *sikur (“free, secure”), from Latin sēcūrus (“secure”, literally “without care”). Doublet of sure and secure.
Inherited from Middle English *sikeren (attested only as sikeriez (“(it) trickles, (it) leaks, (it) oozes”)), from Old English sicerian (“to ooze, seep”), from Proto-West Germanic *sikarōn, from Proto-Germanic *sikarōną (“to trickle”), from Proto-Germanic *sīką (“slow running water”). Cognate with German Low German sickern (“to seep”), German sickern (“to seep, trickle”). Akin also to English sitch.
Words formed from sicker
- sickerhood
- sickerly
- sickerness
Words that rhyme with sicker
Questions about sicker
- What does sicker mean?
- Sicker means certain.
- What is sicker the comparative form of?
- Sicker is the comparative form of sick.
- What part of speech is sicker?
- Sicker can be an adjective, an adverb or a verb.
- How do you pronounce sicker?
- Sicker is pronounced /ˈsɪkɚ/ (US).
Words near sicker in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: sicker (page history and authors); sick (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: en-uk-sicker.ogg.
Cite this entry: “sicker.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sicker. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.