The Collaborative International Dictionary
Sickly \Sick"ly\, a. [Compar. Sicklier; superl. Sickliest.]
-
Somewhat sick; disposed to illness; attended with disease; as, a sickly body.
This physic but prolongs thy sickly days.
--Shak. Producing, or tending to, disease; as, a sickly autumn; a sickly climate.
--Cowper.-
Appearing as if sick; weak; languid; pale.
The moon grows sickly at the sight of day.
--Dryden.Nor torrid summer's sickly smile.
--Keble. -
Tending to produce nausea; sickening; as, a sickly smell; sickly sentimentality.
Syn: Diseased; ailing; infirm; weakly; unhealthy; healthless; weak; feeble; languid; faint.
Wiktionary
a. (en-comparative of: sickly)
WordNet
adj. unhealthy looking [syn: sallow]
somewhat ill or prone to illness; "my poor ailing grandmother"; "feeling a bit indisposed today"; "you look a little peaked"; "feeling poorly"; "a sickly child"; "is unwell and can't come to work" [syn: ailing, indisposed, peaked(p), poorly(p), unwell, under the weather]
See sickly
Usage examples of "sicklier".
Second, I'm having enough trouble keeping this bunch alive, and I have no assurances that you won't foist a batch of even sicklier ones off on me.
He prepared a sicklier version -- whiskey and port-style British wine diluted with warm water from the washing-up tap -- and this too was well appreciated.
Every time he went, and he went often, their painful treatments seemed to make him sicklier, more stunted.