Definition

1. Adjective:

   • Affected by physical or mental illness: Experiencing a state of poor health, disease, or nausea.
   • Feeling nauseated; about to vomit: The sensation of needing to throw up.
   • Deeply affected by a strong, typically unpleasant, emotion: Overwhelmed by feelings such as envy, longing, or distress.
   • Intensely weary of or disgusted by something: Having had an excess of something to the point of aversion.
   • Shockingly repellent; macabre or horrifying: Inspiring horror or disgust, often related to death or violence.
   • (Of a color or light) Pale, faint, or weak: Lacking in intensity, vividness, or brightness.

2. Noun:

   • People who are ill: Collectively refers to those who are unwell.

3. Verb:

   • (Chiefly British, informal) To vomit: To eject the contents of the stomach through the mouth.

Usage and Examples

• Adjective (Ill/Nauseated):
  • He called in sick to work today.
  • The smell of the garbage made her feel sick.
• Adjective (Weary/Disgusted):
  • I am sick of all this arguing.
  • He was sick with envy when he saw their new car.
• Adjective (Macabre):
  • The movie featured some truly sick humor.
  • They discovered a sick, grisly scene.
• Adjective (Pale):
  • The walls were painted a sick yellow color.
  • The sick light of dawn barely illuminated the room.
• Noun:
  • The hospital cares for the sick and the injured.
• Verb:
  • The baby sicked up all his milk.

Advanced Usage and Nuances

• "to be sick of" / "sick to death of": An idiom expressing extreme boredom, annoyance, or disgust with something due to overexposure.
  • I'm sick to death of hearing the same excuses.
• "to be sick at heart": To feel deeply saddened, disappointed, or distressed.
  • She was sick at heart after hearing the bad news.
• "to worry oneself sick": To worry so much that it makes one feel ill.
  • Don't worry yourself sick; everything will be fine.
• "sick as a parrot" (British, informal): Extremely disappointed.
  • He was sick as a parrot after missing the penalty kick.

Variants and Related Words

• Sicken (verb): To make someone feel disgusted or nauseated; to become ill.
  • The violence in the film sickened me.
• Sickly (adjective): Often ill; weak and unhealthy in appearance; overly sentimental or mawkish.
  • A sickly child / a sickly sweet smell.
• Sickness (noun): The state of being ill; a specific disease; nausea.
  • He was absent due to sickness.
• Homesick (adjective): Experiencing a longing for one's home during a period of absence.
  • She felt very homesick during her first week at university.

Synonyms

• Adjective (Ill): Ill, unwell, ailing, nauseated, queasy.
• Adjective (Disgusted): Fed up, tired, weary, disgusted.
• Adjective (Macabre): Ghastly, gruesome, grisly, macabre.
• Verb (Vomit): Vomit, throw up, puke (slang), regurgitate.

Phrasal Verbs / Verb Phrases

• Sick up (verb, chiefly British): To vomit.
  • He sicked up his dinner.
• Sick on (someone) (verb, informal, often imperative): To urge a dog to attack someone.
  • The thief told his dog to "sick 'em!"

Related Idioms

• Make someone sick: To disgust or anger someone intensely.
  • Your hypocrisy makes me sick.
• Sick joke: A joke that is considered in very bad taste, often about a tragic subject.
  • Making fun of the disaster was just a sick joke.
• Sick leave: Permission to be absent from work due to illness.
  • She is on sick leave for two weeks.
• Sick note: A note from a doctor explaining one's illness and need for absence.
  • You'll need a sick note for the HR department.

Adjective

1. shockingly repellent; inspiring horror
   • ghastly wounds
   • the grim aftermath of the bombing
   • the grim task of burying the victims
   • a grisly murder
   • gruesome evidence of human sacrifice
   • macabre tales of war and plague in the Middle ages
   • macabre tortures conceived by madmen
2. deeply affected by a strong feeling
   • sat completely still, sick with envy
   • she was sick with longing
3. (of light) lacking in intensity or brightness; dim or feeble
   • the pale light of a half moon
   • a pale sun
   • the late afternoon light coming through the el tracks fell in pale oblongs on the street
   • a pallid sky
   • the pale (or wan) stars
   • the wan light of dawn
4. having a strong distaste from surfeit
   • grew more and more disgusted
   • fed up with their complaints
   • sick of it all
   • sick to death of flattery
   • gossip that makes one sick
   • tired of the noise and smoke
5. affected with madness or insanity
   • a man who had gone mad
6. feeling nausea; feeling about to vomit
7. affected by an impairment of normal physical or mental function
   • ill from the monotony of his suffering

Noun

1. people who are sick
   • they devote their lives to caring for the sick

Verb

1. eject the contents of the stomach through the mouth
   • After drinking too much, the students vomited
   • He purged continuously
   • The patient regurgitated the food we gave him last night