How to Use sickly in a Sentence

sickly

1 of 2 adjective
  • The lamp gave off a sickly glow.
  • The walls were painted a sickly yellow.
  • This is not made up or in the minds of people who are sickly.
    — Meghan O'Rourke, The Atlantic, 8 Mar. 2021
  • When this happens, your shrub’s leaves look pale or sickly and may even drop off.
    — oregonlive, 18 Dec. 2022
  • There can be a sort of sickly, sweet chemical type of smell and taste.
    — Sandee Lamotte, CNN, 1 Oct. 2022
  • Beneath its spines the skin wrinkled and stayed a sickly green.
    — Jackie Polzin, Star Tribune, 6 July 2021
  • Drink a big cup full of sickly-sweet liquid, get your blood tested.
    — Anna Claire Vollers | [email protected], al, 26 Mar. 2020
  • The sickly girl demands more time among the living.
    — Carlos Aguilar, Variety, 15 Aug. 2025
  • The youngest, Mark, was the sickly boy who inspired his mom to bake whole-wheat bread.
    — Fox News, 24 June 2022
  • This usually occurs when a dead limb or a sickly tree falls.
    — Brandee Gruener, Southern Living, 2 Jan. 2026
  • There was a sickly little orange one with a head that wobbled back and forth.
    — Kathryn Scanlan, Harper’s Magazine , 20 July 2022
  • My mom was over one afternoon and noticed my sickly plant.
    — Patricia Shannon, Southern Living, 29 Apr. 2026
  • Only Abi, the young nanny, can make the sickly girl smile.
    — Anna Marie De La Fuente, Variety, 15 Oct. 2025
  • Through those fake holes in the sickly wallpaper are glimpses of dark skies twinkling with stars.
    — Mark Jenkins, Washington Post, 20 Oct. 2023
  • Covid isn’t fatal, the tests are a sham, and says Kuzma was just a sickly man.
    — Sam Kestenbaum, Rolling Stone, 17 Sep. 2022
  • Camera feeds near the Fawn fire showed sickly orange-gray smoke rolling across the sky.
    — Hayley Smith, Los Angeles Times, 24 Sep. 2021
  • His first glance was the frown of the man; the second was the bland and sickly smile of the demagogue.
    — Washington Post, 3 Sep. 2021
  • Best of all is the scent—like an array of roses instead of strong, sickly acetone.
    — Tiffany Dodson, SELF, 18 Mar. 2021
  • The newborn was coughing so badly, her skin turned a sickly gray-blue color.
    — Erika Edwards, NBC news, 17 Dec. 2025
  • Smog compromised the health of kids and the sickly and the elderly.
    — Patt Morrison, Los Angeles Times, 26 Mar. 2026
  • The dominant color is a sickly blue, tinged with greens and purples.
    — Dan Stahl, New Yorker, 1 May 2026
  • The clarinet then falls silent, yet the sonority retains a sickly air.
    — Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 30 Nov. 2022
  • But at 87 years old, barely into middle age, the tree is sickly.
    — New York Times, 28 May 2022
  • The Republic turns a sickly pale.
    — Big Think, 4 May 2026
  • The dog is unable to be shown, will not be able to be bred is likely to remain sickly, the complaint said.
    — Cathy Kozlowicz, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 31 Oct. 2019
  • It is not lost on me that rebel white folks remain the reason for such a sickly America.
    — Ida Harris, Essence, 21 Dec. 2020
  • The weather finally cooled down and the trees are more than just a sickly, dead tan after an arid summer.
    — Alli Harvey, Anchorage Daily News, 19 Sep. 2019
  • The glow of the screen cast a sickly pallor on his gaunt face, highlighting the shadows beneath his eyes.
    — Adi Robertson, The Verge, 24 May 2023
  • Take away the imagery of sickly mutants and focus on their function, Lanier said.
    — Tucker Harris, Washington Post, 29 Sep. 2023
  • Ryan didn’t waver about his feelings in a follow-up after his sickly outing.
    — David Brown, Twin Cities, 8 Sep. 2025

sickly

2 of 2 adverb
  • Don't use it on new seedlings or very sickly, stressed plants.
    — Brandee Gruener, Southern Living, 30 Apr. 2026
  • The sight of him, hunched over and sickly, gives Meiyun the chills.
    — Jordan Mintzer, HollywoodReporter, 3 Sep. 2019
  • And maybe the spice that keeps it from becoming too sickly sweet.
    — Matt Brennan, Los Angeles Times, 22 Dec. 2021
  • There was a sickly little orange one with a head that wobbled back and forth.
    — Matthew Gavin Frank, Harper's Magazine, 21 Aug. 2022
  • Beans withered on the vine; carrots came out of the soil sickly and without crunch.
    — Hazlitt, 6 Sep. 2023
  • But wow, look what wonders very slowly and sometimes sickly grew!
    — Literary Hub, 11 Sep. 2025
  • The flavor was sickly sweet, with a goopy texture and a bare hint of pistachio.
    — Kyle Chayka, New Yorker, 20 Aug. 2025
  • Did the sickly-sweet chocolates at the end come from Russell Stover?
    — Dallas News, 14 Apr. 2022
  • Still, Shopsin resists the urge to veer sickly-sweet in her nostalgia.
    — Wired Staff, Wired, 26 Nov. 2021
  • Rather than smelling sickly sweet, the scent is fresh and fruity, drying down to a smooth base of coconut milk and vanilla cream.
    — Venus Wong, refinery29.com, 31 Jan. 2025
  • If your once-vigorous plant is starting to look sickly, spider mites may be the culprits.
    — Arricca Elin Sansone, Southern Living, 19 May 2026
  • If your once-vigorous plant is starting to look sickly, spider mites may be the culprits.
    — Arricca Elin Sansone, Southern Living, 27 Oct. 2025
  • The plants get seven hours of sunlight, but the leaves are really sickly looking.
    — Neil Sperry, San Antonio Express-News, 10 Sep. 2021
  • His helmet glows a sickly green to illuminate the grinning face of a skull through the viewing window.
    — Mary Walrath-Holdridge, USA TODAY, 24 July 2024
  • Dull mirrors and drab metal stalls passed sickly fluorescence between them.
    — Michael W. Clune, Harper’s Magazine , 7 Apr. 2023
  • At the same time that greasy stain is climbing up the side of the Peep, that sickly Peep flavor is seeping out across the pizza.
    — al, 4 Apr. 2021
  • However, the rose in this hair oil isn't sickly sweet, and actually smells like the real thing, not a chemical copy.
    — Tatjana Freund, Marie Claire, 26 Aug. 2020
  • In other words, the tension between dark metaphor and the sickly sweet fantasyland of Oz has always been there.
    — Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 19 Nov. 2024
  • The pastel indie-pop serenade is imbued with Night’s sickly sweet romantic lyrics.
    — Grace Ann Natanawan, SPIN, 4 Mar. 2022
  • Even just a couple dashes of bitters can be the difference between something sickly sweet and a drink that’s perfectly balanced.
    — Eric Betz, Discover Magazine, 7 Oct. 2020
  • In the story, a sickly beggar named Lazarus lies outside the gates of a rich man’s house; the rich man ignores him, spending his money on finery instead.
    — Jack Herrera, The New Yorker, 8 Aug. 2024
  • The artist Samara Golden has spent months painting guts — lurid, swollen, sinuous forms in bloody red, purplish-blue or a sickly yellow.
    — Jacqui Palumbo, CNN, 8 Dec. 2022
  • Playful, almost sickly, hues of baby blue, bubblegum pink, and banana yellow tie things up in a funny little millennial bow.
    — Camille Okhio, ELLE Decor, 30 Nov. 2022
  • The flavor was usually watered-down and sickly sweet, with an unpleasant alcohol burn and none of the complexity of a straight bourbon or rye whiskey.
    — Jonah Flicker, Robb Report, 12 Oct. 2024
  • Typically, these bottles are sickly sweet and hangover inducing.
    — Kate Dingwall, Forbes, 31 July 2022
  • Parents, pastors, and other moral leaders were sickly invested in feminist misery.
    — Audrey Clare Farley, The New Republic, 4 May 2023
  • In that game of lore, a sickly Jordan played 44 minutes and finished with 38 points, seven rebounds, five assists, three steals and a block.
    — Jason Clinkscales, Sportico.com, 10 Oct. 2024
  • Still sickly five days after testing positive, Trevino says she was pressured to return to work without a negative test result.
    — NBC News, 10 Feb. 2022
  • The inarguable center of the image is another gruesome mouth, but most of the square footage belongs to a pale, sickly yellow that reinforces the mood without overwhelming it.
    — Jackson Arn, The New Yorker, 11 Sep. 2023
  • The only objects that had a distinguishable color amid the yellow hue were photographs of human faces—which appeared to participants as a sickly green.
    — Timmy Broderick, Scientific American, 21 July 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'sickly.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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