Meanings (ES + gloss)
achacoso • calamitoso • enclenque • enfermizo • enteco • valetudinario
Frequently ill or in poor health; weakly.
1759, Tobias Smollett, letter dated 16 March, 1759, in James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson, London: Charles Dilly, 1791, Volume 1, p. 190, … the boy is a sickly lad, of a del…
a sickly child
enfermizo
Appearing ill, infirm or unhealthy; giving the appearance of illness.
1782, Frances Burney, Cecilia, London: T. Payne and Son, and T. Cadell, Volume 1, Book 1, Chapter 9, p. 121, … she exhibited a countenance so wretched, and a complection so sickly,…
a sickly pallor
débil • triste
Lacking intensity or vigour.
What man of soul would [...] run, Day after day, the still-returning round Of life’s mean offices, and sickly joys; But in compassion to mankind?
a sickly smile
dulzón • empalagoso
Overly sweet.
After a meal of bread, bacon, rum and bitter stewed tea sickly with sugar, we went up through the broken trees to the east of the village and up a long trench to battalion headquar…
[…] he was again tasting the sickly welter of melted ice cream on his plate.
Phrases