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Sickly

Disease
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Habitually unhealthy, weak, pale, or lacking in vitality; in poetry, sickliness connotes physical frailty, moral languor, or an atmosphere of decay, often linked to indoor confinement or chronic malaise.

Detailed Definition
Sickly describes an appearance or condition of chronic weakness rather than a single acute illness. A sickly child, light, flower, or moon may seem pale, thin, and unable to thrive. Poets often use the word to tint a scene with wan color and diminished life, turning beauty uneasy or fragile. In social poems, sickly can also suggest environments that produce ill health, such as polluted streets, cramped rooms, or exhausted industrial districts.
Example
Example in poetry:
“A sickly yellow dawn leaked through the blinds,” using sickly to make color feel unhealthy and ominous; The poet calls the garden’s roses “sickly,” showing that blight has replaced their usual vigor; “His sickly smile faded before the answer came” reveals weakness or emotional strain; In a city poem, “sickly lamps” can suggest polluted light and urban decay
Additional Notes
Means regularly weak or unhealthy rather than briefly ill. It may describe a pale person, a feeble plant, dim light, or an atmosphere lacking vitality.
Also Known As
Unhealthy Ailing Infirm Peely-wally
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