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# sickly

«sickly» in Mova's school dictionary: **Often ill, weak or not healthy** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

adjective (sickly, sicklier, sickliest)

### meaning for a pupil

1) Often ill, weak or not healthy. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sickly/#m1)

2) Looking pale or unhealthy. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sickly/#m2)

3) (of taste or smell) Too sweet in a way that makes you feel a bit sick. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sickly/#m3)

4) (of colour or light) Pale and unpleasant, like a sickly yellow. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sickly/#m4)

5) (of feelings) Too sweet or sentimental. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sickly/#m5)

### sense in the lessons

In stories a sickly child or plant is weak and often ill, especially in history before modern medicine. In everyday life «sickly sweet» describes sweets, perfume or a cake with too much icing. In art and descriptions «a sickly green» is an ugly pale colour.

### examples

- She was a sickly baby but grew into a strong girl. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sickly/#x1)
- The plant looked sickly because it had no sunlight. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sickly/#x2)
- The cake was sickly sweet with so much icing. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sickly/#x3)
- The room smelled of sickly perfume. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sickly/#x4)
- The walls were painted a sickly yellow. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sickly/#x5)
- He looked pale and sickly after the flu. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sickly/#x6)
- The film had a sickly happy ending. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sickly/#x7)
- Well; I will be the nurse of this poor, sickly boy. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sickly/#x8)

### note

Adjective, though it ends in -ly (not an adverb). Comparative «sicklier», superlative «sickliest». Do not mix up with «sickle», a curved blade for cutting crops.

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «sickly» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sickly/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.