sickroom

noun

sick·​room ˈsik-ˌrüm How to pronounce sickroom (audio)
-ˌru̇m
: a room in which a person is confined by sickness

Examples of sickroom in a Sentence

We brought father home from the hospital and converted a spare room into a sickroom.
Recent Examples on the Web This show at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Mass., revealed an artist who always seemed to be emerging from dark sickrooms, seizing the landscape, which struck his eyes as fresh and startlingly sensate. Sebastian Smee, Washington Post, 5 Dec. 2023 To prevent infected air from seeping out of the sickroom, Fox suggests wedging towels in the gap under the bedroom door. Liz Szabo, NBC News, 17 May 2022 In 1855, Martineau once again confined herself to a sickroom due to a resurgence of her symptoms. Lorraine Boissoneault, Smithsonian Magazine, 4 Nov. 2021 Martineau broke off all contact with Greenhow, left her sickroom in Tynemouth, and resumed traveling and writing once more. Lorraine Boissoneault, Smithsonian Magazine, 4 Nov. 2021 When Praskovya bursts into her husband’s sickroom, the music shoots a jolt of energy — and life — into the moment. Matthew J. Palm, orlandosentinel.com, 20 Feb. 2021 For Richard Wright and Masaoka Shiki, lying on their sickroom beds, writing haiku was an art of short spurts of insight followed by exhaustion. Christopher Benfey, The New York Review of Books, 25 June 2020 Even the devoted family dog, Heidi, was banished from the sickroom. Bettina Boxall, Los Angeles Times, 9 Apr. 2020 Dying people in the bygone world were said to have commonly seen their dead relations or others known to them—not in the hallucinatory trips of the near-death experience, but in the sickroom with them. John Crowley, Harper's magazine, 10 Apr. 2019

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'sickroom.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1749, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of sickroom was in 1749

Dictionary Entries Near sickroom

Cite this Entry

“Sickroom.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sickroom. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

sickroom

noun
sick·​room ˈsik-ˌrüm How to pronounce sickroom (audio)
-ˌru̇m
: a room in which a sick person stays

Medical Definition

sickroom

noun
sick·​room ˈsik-ˌrüm, -ˌru̇m How to pronounce sickroom (audio)
: a room in which a person is confined by sickness

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