sick adj.1
1. (US Und.) imprisoned.
![]() | Vocabulum. |
2. (US campus) a general pej., of poor quality, unfashionable, unappealing, stupid, weak, bizarre.
![]() | Four Years at Yale 47: Sick, bad, inferior, disgusting, contemptible. | |
![]() | Coll. Short Stories (1941) 45: You ought to keep the doll with us and he’d make Cobb’s figures look sick. | ‘Alibi Ike’ in|
![]() | ‘Double Feature’ in N.Y. Age 5 June 7/1: The dance was a killer, Jack. Bobby Miller really came oninstead of handing out some sick musical jive. | |
![]() | Thumb Tripping (1971) 177: Hey Jesus, this is sick. | |
![]() | Only Fools and Horses [TV script] Well don’t you think it’s a bit sick you know – a cat playing a song about a dog? | ‘A Touch of Glass’|
![]() | With the Boys 175: The Iowan male subculture [...] uses ‘moron’ rather than calling someone ‘sick’. | |
![]() | Sl. U. 170: sick bad, of poor quality; strange; gross; stupid, uncool. | |
![]() | Guardian G2 18 June 5: It’s sick. You have to forget your ego and you just talk about how tired you are all the time. | |
![]() | Observer Screen 10 Oct. 2: Oh, LA is one sick city, and the sooner the Big One hurtles the whole town into the Pacific the better. |
3. annoyed, worried, disgusted, often with undertones of jealousy.
![]() | Forty Years a Gambler 28: We won the bank roll, which made the Frenchman very sick. | |
![]() | Tom Sawyer, Detective 89: Well, it made our lawyer look pretty sick; and it knocked Tom silly, too. | |
![]() | Sporting Times 9 June 3/3: I reckon Tommie and Archie feel slightly sick that I’m not howling any over that seven pound four, eh? | |
![]() | Gentle Grafter (1915) 185: They all had Golconda stock and looked as sick as you please. | ‘A Tempered Wind’ in|
![]() | Everlasting Mercy 12: Time! There was Bill, and I felt sick / That luck should play so mean a trick. | |
![]() | (con. 1910s) Elmer Gantry 260: He was expected everywhere to tell of ‘brave death in the cause of the Lord.’ He was very sick about it. | |
![]() | Runyon on Broadway (1954) 108: Then I can go back to Erasmus and make Joe Trivett look sick. | ‘Tobias the Terrible’ in|
![]() | (con. 1910s) Studs Lonigan (1936) 56: She [...] passed him on his right, making him look quite sick. | Young Lonigan in|
![]() | Really the Blues 252: Man, we got some records back there by a guy [...] called James P. Johnson that’ll make them all look sick. | |
![]() | Mating Season 121: I imagined that she would be as sick as mud. | |
![]() | Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit 93: That fellow Cheesewright makes me sick. | |
![]() | Talking to Women 32: nell.: What do you think makes you get sick of people? kathy.: Habits – bad habits. | |
![]() | in Living Dangerously 58: I was gutted, well sick. | |
![]() | Layer Cake 11: He was sick and I could see it on his face. |
4. (US) mentally disturbed, psychopathic, esp. in a sadistic way.
![]() | Coll. Stories 364: ‘You are sick, son,’ I said to my smiling reflection. After a moment I added, ‘But that isn’t anything to worry about. We are all sick. Sicker than we know’. | ‘Daydream’ in|
![]() | City of Night 179: Fairies and nymphos and sick, sick cops. | |
![]() | World of Jimmy Breslin (1968) 13: ‘I think you’re sick.’ [...] ‘No, I’m not. I just hate those people.’. | |
![]() | Voices from the Love Generation 29: The norm is sick. | |
![]() | (con. 1950s) Age of Rock 2 (1970) 100: As the get-well card said: I’m glad you’re sick, but I’m sorry you’re ill. | ‘The Fifties’ in Eisen|
![]() | (con. 1960s) | The Wanderers 14: So you’re the sick sonovabitch who did that.|
![]() | Carlito’s Way 22: Sick — some of them guys is sick. | |
![]() | Brown’s Requiem 85: Jesus Christ. I always knew he was sick. But this. | |
![]() | Homeboy 210: You’re a lot sicker than belly Blast can cure with whips. | |
![]() | Stormy Weather 15: That was the sickest thing I ever saw. | |
![]() | The Joy (2015) [ebook] Mad Frankie is one sick fucker. | |
![]() | Indep. 24 Sept. 4: Hirst exhibition ‘sick stuff’ says Mayor Giuliani. | |
![]() | Hip-Hop Connection Jan./Feb. 34: He’s a sick motherfucker who should be murdered in a public square. | |
![]() | Turning (2005) 287: The fucking creep! The miserable, sick bastard. | ‘Boner McPharlin’s Moll’ in|
![]() | Before I Go to Sleep 334: ‘You’re sick,’ I say. ‘How fucking you dare you! Of course I loved him!’. | |
![]() | Broken 126: [A] wacko, a sick headcase [...] who wanted to see what would happen if you gave a handgun to a chimp. | ‘The San Diego Zoo’ in
5. (orig. US) morbid, depraved, e.g. a sick sense of humour.
![]() | Proud Highway (1997) 305: When they did a sick little ditty called, ‘Happy Landings, Amelia Earhart,’ there was a distinct odor of Lenny Bruce. | in|
![]() | Hall of Mirrors (1987) 181: You’re sick man [...] you’re fucking depraved, old boy. | |
![]() | Essential Lenny Bruce 132: I don’t want to be referred to with those sick comics, and Lenny Bruce is the sickest of them all. | |
![]() | (ref. to 1958) Lenny Bruce 214: Lenny [...] was playing into the image of the sick comic [...] the sick comics were the big pop-culture phenomenon of the fall of 1958. | |
![]() | Villain’s Tale 183: It was like some sick joke against themselves. | |
![]() | Joe Bob Goes to the Drive-In 61: Night of the Living Dead (1968): [...] banned in several cities because it’s sick. | |
![]() | Trainspotting 181: The Sick Boy is going round tae Marianne’s the night for some sick fun. Doggy style must certainly be on the menu. | |
![]() | Guardian Weekend 26 June 3: Selling pornography in sweet shops [...] I think it’s such a sick and stupid thing. | |
![]() | Mothers Milk 229: Two pot-bellied policemen training an Alsatian to tear apart any sick fucks who thought to disturb the peace. | |
![]() | Squeeze Me 40: ‘I decapitated it with a machete.’ ‘That’s some sick shit’. |
6. (also sic) excellent, first-rate [on the bad = good model].
![]() | Campus Sl. Mar. 5: sick – unbelievably good: The Fleetwood Mac concert was sick. | |
![]() | Satyrday 25: I hope this party’s going to be sick [...] I fancy something really brilliant and sick. | |
![]() | Campus Sl. Oct. | |
![]() | Campus Sl. Apr. | |
![]() | College Sl. Research Project (Cal. State Poly. Uni., Pomona) 🌐 Sick (adj.) Awesome, neat, cool. | |
![]() | Lingo 106: Youthspeak for something good can range through zesty, mad, sick and bad. | |
![]() | Guardian G2 3 Aug. 3: They was ... the nuts [...] heavy, large, sick. | |
![]() | 🎵 I got the sickest vendetta, when it come to the chedda, (uh huh) / Nigga, you play with my paper, you gon meet my baretta. | ‘Wanksta’|
![]() | Teen Lingo: The Source for Youth Ministry 🌐 sick adj. sick describing an extremely good trick in an extreme sport ‘That was a sick ollie over the stairs braw!’. | |
![]() | S.F. University High School Update Mar.–Apr. 2: sick – tight. | ‘Sweet, Tight and Hella Stupid’ in|
![]() | 1Xtra [BBC radio] One of the sickest hip-hop gigs in 2006. | |
![]() | BBC News ‘Report on Teenage Slang’ 11 Mar. [radio] sick = very good. | |
![]() | Star Island (2011) 34: Yeah, just Cherish. Is that sick or what? | |
![]() | Attack the Block [film script] 45: PEST You know what man? [...] I’m shitting myself innit. But at the same time... [...] This is sick. | |
![]() | UNC-CH Campus Sl. Spring 2016. | (ed.)|
![]() | Guardian Guide 21 May 11/2: I committed myself to being a sick guy, a sick performer. | |
![]() | www.verywellfamily.com/a-teen-slang-dictionary 10 Mar. 🌐 Sic - Something that is cool. | |
![]() | Who They Was 6: Gotti is saying you’re sick fam, proper bigging me up to Tyrell. |
In compounds
see separate entry.
(US) an irrational, eccentric person.
![]() | Stone Face 104: ‘Yah, yah, them people is all messed up. They sick puppies’. | |
![]() | Boston Globe 3 Sept. 24/1: Dismissing [...] Burke [...] as ‘a sick puppy’. | |
![]() | One 8: We think you're a sick puppy, mister. |
In phrases
to amaze, to astonish; to disorientate, stun.
![]() | Hull Dly Mail 16 Oct. 3/4: The water seemed to knock him sick. | |
![]() | Wkly Advertiser (Montgomery, AL) 29 Aug. 4/7: Up he ran, / Against a man, / Who knocked him sick. | |
![]() | Marvel III:56 19: We’re going to knock ’em sick this term. | |
![]() | Lonely Plough (1931) 162: The Shaws paled – this was a new and dreadful Harriet – but Stubbs merely halloed: ‘Sick ’em, lass!’. | |
![]() | Brooklyn Dly Eagle (NY) 2 May 28/2: [pic. caption] Knocked Sick Again! |
(US campus) a general pej., absolutely impossible, unthinkable, totally disgusting; also used ironically.
![]() | Sl. U. | |
![]() | Courier (Waterloo, IA) 2 Sept. 24/5: ‘Raunchy’: gross or disgusting. ‘Sick and wrong’: same as ‘raunchy’. |
see separate entry.
(US) very sick.
![]() | Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era. |