Word.ws English Dictionary

sickliest

sickliest is the superlative form of sickly.

Meaning of sickly

Adjective

sickly (comparative sicklier, superlative sickliest)

  1. Frequently ill or in poor health; weakly.
    • a sickly child
    Synonyms:
    valetudinarian
  2. Not in good health; (somewhat) sick.
    • Yes, bring me word, boy, if thy lord look well,
      For he went sickly forth:1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
  3. Characterized by poor or unhealthy growth. (of a plant)
    • [...] the good wheat on this land had turned sickly and yellow.1931, Pearl S. Buck, chapter 27, in The Good Earth, New York: Modern Library, published 1944, page 236
  4. Appearing ill, infirm or unhealthy; giving the appearance of illness.
    • a sickly pallor
  5. Shedding a relatively small amount of light; (of light) not very bright.
    • The Moon grows sickly at the sight of day.1665, John Dryden, The Indian Emperour, London: H. Herringman, published 1667, act II, page 17
    Synonyms:
    faint, pale, wan
  6. Lacking intensity or vigour.
    • a sickly smile
    Synonyms:
    faint, feeble, insipid, weak

See all 14 meanings of sickly

Questions about sickliest

What is sickliest the superlative form of?
Sickliest is the superlative form of sickly.

Words near sickliest in the dictionary

  1. sicklewise
  2. sicklewort
  3. sicklied
  4. sicklier
  5. sicklies
  6. sickliest
  7. sicklified
  8. sicklifies
  9. sicklify
  10. sicklifying
  11. sicklily

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sickliest (page history and authors); sickly (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:

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