1
as in frail
chronically or repeatedly suffering from poor health
a sickly foal that seemed to catch everything that the other horses had
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in poisonous
bad for the well-being of the body
lungs scarred by years of exposure to the sickly air of the coal mines
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of sickly
Working with his regular cinematographer Oleg Mutu, Loznitsa gives this prison — and authoritarianism itself — a sickly luster without ever denying its wretched stench.
—
Tim Grierson, Los Angeles Times, 26 Mar. 2026
In a large, rather attractive room, five men sat around a table, all in military uniforms, except for one sickly old man.
—Christine Smallwood, Harpers Magazine, 24 Mar. 2026
The smoke kept rising and the clouds continued to throb with sickly yellow-and-black whorls until just after sunset, when the boiling mass of vapor suddenly turned pink and scarlet, like a poisonous flower opening its petals.
—New York Times, 16 Mar. 2026
His father was sickly, and Jack had to work in a cannery in West Oakland.
—Carl Nolte, San Francisco Chronicle, 28 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for sickly
Tim Grierson, Los Angeles Times, 26 Mar. 2026
In a large, rather attractive room, five men sat around a table, all in military uniforms, except for one sickly old man.
—Christine Smallwood, Harpers Magazine, 24 Mar. 2026
The smoke kept rising and the clouds continued to throb with sickly yellow-and-black whorls until just after sunset, when the boiling mass of vapor suddenly turned pink and scarlet, like a poisonous flower opening its petals.
—New York Times, 16 Mar. 2026
His father was sickly, and Jack had to work in a cannery in West Oakland.
—Carl Nolte, San Francisco Chronicle, 28 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for sickly
Recent Examples of Synonyms for sickly
Adjective
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Physically frail, yet in full verbal command, Julian doesn’t talk to Lori so much as at her, pausing only to fire off questions that harden, in midair, into assumptions.—
Justin Chang,
New Yorker,
3 Apr. 2026
-
Meyerson had become frail and disoriented by the spring of 2019.—
Carol Marbin Miller,
Miami Herald,
2 Apr. 2026
Adjective
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The villain, though, is not Michael Jackson but his father, Joe, whose determination to get his boys out of Gary, Indiana, turns into something more poisonous.—
Kelefa Sanneh,
New Yorker,
20 Apr. 2026
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Except for the Genetic Infantry, blue super soldiers engineered by the Southers to survive the poisonous atmosphere.—
Jonathan M. Gitlin,
ArsTechnica,
20 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
The discussions follow last Tuesday’s historic meeting between Israeli Ambassador Yechiel Leiter and Lebanese Ambassador Nada Hamadeh, attended by Rubio, which were the first direct negotiations between the two countries in decades and resulted in the agreement for a fragile 10-day ceasefire.—
Sean Nevin,
NBC news,
24 Apr. 2026
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Israel and Lebanon are due to begin a second round of peace talks Thursday, as the Israeli military and Iranian-backed Hezbollah accuse each other of breaching their fragile ceasefire.—
CBS News,
CBS News,
23 Apr. 2026
Adjective
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The former Exide Technologies plant in Vernon melted down pallets of lead-acid car batteries in blast furnaces for nearly a century, blanketing up to 10,000 nearby properties with toxic dust, according to state officials.—
Tony Briscoe,
Los Angeles Times,
11 Apr. 2026
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Oil prices are once again surging in the wake of war in the Middle East, driving up the cost of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel and threatening a return to stagflation – the toxic mix of higher prices and slower growth that made economic life so miserable a half century ago.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
11 Apr. 2026
Adjective
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This animal is really, really very, very, very sick.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
20 Apr. 2026
-
Cameron Collins was sick of Joe Biden.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
20 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
The soil may contain pathogens, pesticides and other unhealthful things.—
Joan Morris,
Mercury News,
9 Feb. 2026
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The change comes amid concerns about fireworks causing unhealthful air.—
Rong-Gong Lin II,
Los Angeles Times,
19 June 2025
Adjective
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Viel made a weak pass that led to the goal but had a strong hit on McDavid in the opening 20 minutes as well.—
Andrew Knoll,
Oc Register,
25 Apr. 2026
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With the uncertainty caused by the war with Iran, the price of oil going through the roof, and tariffs complicating company supply chains, analysts expected the labor market to get weaker.—
Jim Edwards,
Fortune,
24 Apr. 2026
Adjective
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The organization said 152 million Americans live in areas with unhealthy levels of ozone or particle pollution.—
Cory Smith,
Baltimore Sun,
24 Apr. 2026
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The report analyzes data from 2022 through 2024 to grade counties on unhealthy levels of ozone and particle pollution, perhaps better understood as smog and soot, respectively.—
Samantha Neely,
USA Today,
23 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Sickly.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/sickly. Accessed 26 Apr. 2026.
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