sickly
Pale and weak
Sickly describes someone prone to illness or appearing unhealthy: a sickly child who missed weeks of school each year.
The word extends to things that seem weak, pale, or unwholesome: sickly light, a sickly complexion, sickly sweet.
That last phrase describes excessive sweetness that becomes unpleasant or cloying—whether in flavor, sentiment, or manner.
Pale and unwell-looking
- pallidUnhealthily lacking color
- ashenPale, grayish-white
- sallowUnhealthily yellowish complexion
- pastyUnhealthily pale
ghostly · blanched · chalky · colorless · drained · washed-out · peaky · anemic
Experiencing poor health
indisposed · bedridden · invalid · afflicted · languishing · peaked · poorly · feverish
Lacking power or force
- delicateEasily broken or harmed
- fragileEasily broken or damaged
- feebleWeak and ineffective
- punySmall and weak
slight · thin · weedy · scrawny · spindly · underdeveloped · stunted · runty
Mildly sick to stomach
- nauseousFeeling urge to vomit
- biliousIll-tempered or nauseated
- cloyingExcessively sweet or sentimental
- saccharineExaggeratedly sentimental
treacly · oversweet · stomach-turning · off-putting · unpalatable · revolting · gross · putrid
Disturbing, death-obsessed
- ghoulishFascinated by death grotesquely
- gruesomeCausing horror and disgust
- unwholesomeDetrimental to wellbeing
- deathlyResembling the grave
eerie · creepy · sepulchral · cadaverous · ghastly · sinister · dark · grim
wan
Pale and unwell-looking
pasty · ghostly · blanched · chalky · colorless · drained · washed-out · peaky · anemic · yellowish
unwell
Experiencing poor health
feeble · indisposed · bedridden · invalid · afflicted · languishing · peaked · poorly · feverish · weak
weak
Lacking power or force
puny · slight · thin · weedy · scrawny · spindly · underdeveloped · stunted · runty · undersized
queasy
Mildly sick to stomach
- nauseousFeeling urge to vomit
- biliousIll-tempered or nauseated
- cloyingExcessively sweet or sentimental
saccharine · treacly · oversweet · stomach-turning · off-putting · unpalatable · revolting · gross · putrid · rancid
macabre
Disturbing, death-obsessed
- ghoulishFascinated by death grotesquely
- gruesomeCausing horror and disgust
- unwholesomeDetrimental to wellbeing
deathly · eerie · creepy · sepulchral · cadaverous · ghastly · sinister · dark · grim · morose
- appearancestall, short, thin, fat, slim
- sicknessill, unwell, ailing, diseased, infected
- weakweak, feeble, frail, fragile, faint
- invalidsinvalid, invalids, infirm, bedridden, incapacitated
- cleanlinessclean, cleanliness, clean up, dirty, neatness
- body typesectomorph, endomorph, mesomorph, somatotype, athletic build
- get sickBecome unwell
- sick and tiredThoroughly weary of something
- sick dayPaid absence for illness
- worried sickIntensely anxious to illness
- morning sicknessPregnancy-related nausea
- sick leaveAuthorized absence when unwell
sick, sickness, sickening, sicken, sicker, sickened, sickly-sweet, homesickness, seasickness