sick

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Not healthy; ill.

   She stayed home from school because she was sick.

2. 2
   adj

   Feeling like you are going to vomit.

   I felt sick after the long boat ride.

3. 3
   adj

   Very tired of or annoyed by something.

   I'm sick of waiting in this long queue.

4. 4
   adj

   In very bad taste; cruel or disturbing.

   That's a sick joke and nobody laughed.

Common collocations

• sick leave Adjective + noun

From Middle English sik, sike, seek, seke, seok, from Old English sēoc (“sick, ill”), from Proto-West Germanic *seuk, from Proto-Germanic *seukaz, from Proto-Indo-European *sewg- (“to be troubled or grieved”). See also West Frisian siik, Dutch ziek, German siech, Norwegian Bokmål syk, Norwegian Nynorsk sjuk, Danish syg; also Middle Irish socht (“silence, depression”), Old Armenian հիւծանիմ (hiwcanim, “to be weakening”). The "very good, excellent" sense is an ameliorative semantic shift from the original sense of "in poor health". Compare similar semantic development in terrific and wicked.

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