sicken

/ˈsɪkən/

/ˈsɪkɪn/

Other forms: sickening; sickened; sickens

Things that sicken you make you feel upset or ill. It might sicken you to realize that you've hit a squirrel with your car.

When things sicken you, they either make you feel terrible — disgusted or horrified — or they make you physically sick. Eating a piece of moldy bread or some potato salad that's been sitting in the sun too long will probably sicken you. Reading a story about childhood hunger and poverty in the newspaper can also sicken you. The earliest meaning of sicken was "fall ill," from an Old English root, seoc, "ill, diseased, weak, or troubled."

Definitions of sicken

1. verb

   make sick or ill
   “This kind of food sickens me”

   types:

   choke, gag

   cause to retch or choke

   type of:

   harm

   cause or do harm to
2. verb

   upset and make nauseated
   “The mold on the food sickened the diners”

   synonyms: nauseate, turn one's stomach

   type of:

   disgust, gross out, repel, revolt

   fill with distaste
3. verb

   get sick
   synonyms: come down

   types:

   wan

   become pale and sickly

   contract, get, take

   be stricken by an illness, fall victim to an illness

   canker

   become infected with a canker

   catch

   contract

   type of:

   decline, worsen

   grow worse
4. verb

   cause aversion in; offend the moral sense of
   synonyms: churn up, disgust, nauseate, revolt

   types:

   appal, appall, offend, outrage, scandalise, scandalize, shock

   strike with disgust or revulsion

   type of:

   repel, repulse

   be repellent to; cause aversion in