sickliest
sickliest is the superlative form of sickly.
Meaning of sickly
Adjective
sickly (comparative sicklier, superlative sickliest)
- Frequently ill or in poor health; weakly.
- a sickly child
- Synonyms:
- valetudinarian
- 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]...
- Yes, bring me word, boy, if thy lord look well,
- 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
- 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.
- The Moon grows sickly at the sight of day.1665, John Dryden, The Indian Emperour, London: H. Herringman, published 1667, act II, page 17
- Lacking intensity or vigour.
- a sickly smile
Questions about sickliest
- What is sickliest the superlative form of?
- Sickliest is the superlative form of sickly.
Words near sickliest in the dictionary
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.
