Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. anything depressing, disappointing, frustrating.

1802		C.W. Webber Prairie Scout 265: But our first greeting [i.e. a volley of rifle fire] had been a sickener, and it appeared almost doubtful whether he would venture to attack us again.
1809		B.H. Malkin (trans.) Adventures of Gil Blas (1822) II 197: A deluging tureen of soup, stinking of cabbage and greasy with mutton fat, were enough to have given a sickener to the inveterate stomachs of a regiment.
1812		Egan Boxiana I 267: Warr’s friends were now in high spirits, and the betting went forwards, as it was thought that Dan had received rather a sickener.
1824		J. Wight Mornings in Bow St. 98: I’m from the country, you know. D—n town! — Had enough of it almost. Diddled in this manner! — it’s a sick’ner.
1831		Caledonian Mercury 4 June 2/2: The result is likely to prove a sickener to the Malthusians.
1838		R.S. Surtees Jorrocks Jaunts (1874) 86: Newmarket’s a dreadful place, the werry name’s a sickener.
1841		Northern Star 24 Apr. 4/4: It must be a sickener for those who hugged themselves into the hope that Chartism was dead.
1843		Satirist & Sporting Chron. (Sydney) 18 Feb. 2/3: It is, God knows, a ‘sick’ner’ to be called an Attorney’s Clerk.
1851		R.S. Surtees Young Tom Hall (1926) 213: This was a sickener for Tom. There was no mistaking the little pig-eyed, spindle-shanked cornet.
1866		Wild Boys of London I 42: ‘We can try,’ said Morgan, the overseer. ‘I can’t turn him off, but I’ll get the men to give him a sickener.’.
1884		H. Smart Post to Finish III 126: Sir Marmaduke got such a sickener over the Hunt Cup that he sent the horse back the following week.
1890		Sheffield Indep. (Yorks) 5 Mar. 8/5: It was [...] this Mr Haughton that ’Ready-money Riley,’ as he was called gave such a sickener to [...] and the book aker looked very green at having to pull out [i.e. the money] immediately after the race.
1900		Marvel 21 Dec. 16: That expeeriense sorter guv me a sikner.
1928		Western Morn. News 16 Feb. 7/4: I took a sickener at the Army as soon as I got into it.
1930		Exeter & Plymouth Gaz. (Devon) 12 July 2/4: He did not go often to the cinemas because when he did he generally got a pretty good sickener.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 39/2: She ‘collared’ a pint pot and let me have it right on the ‘nut’ [...] But I bet my life she got a ‘sickener’ for it.
1961		(con. 1920s) J. Sparks Burglar to the Nobility 85: That edned the night classes. After that, the teachers wouldn’t come and the lags wouldn’t go. It was a mutual sickener.
1977		(con. 1930s) S. McAughtry Sinking of the Kenbane Head 27: He finished his race a strong last. Talk about a sickener.
1977		G.F. Newman Villain’s Tale 77: ‘That surprises me, it really does.’ [...] ‘Yeah, me an’ all. I mean, a right fucking sick’ner, innit.’.
1981		A. Payne ‘You Need Hands’ in Minder [TV script] 26: The ’73 weren’t my scene at all, though. Bit of a sickener, that.
2013		K. Sampson Killing Pool 68: If i jump up now, right after them, I’ll be goosed [...] Sickener. I’m going to have to let them go.

2. an excess.

1834		Westmorland Gaz. 4 Sept. 1/3: It must naturally be supposed that this would prove a sickener; but not so, for on that very morning [...] she paid another visit to Mr Pitt.
1841		Manchester Times 4 Sept. 3/6: Here is proof that the Church and State, which have got over many a sickener, would be choked with corn.
1859		Fife Herald (Scot.) 28 Apr. 2/5: There is danger of taking too much of a good thing — getting, in fact, what is vulgarly but expressively known as a sickener.
1859		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 93: SICKNER, a dose too much of anything.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. [as cit. 1859].
1867		Derbyshire Times 26 Oct. 4/3: Give her a god sickener this time.
1870		Wrexham Advertiser 20 Aug. 5/1: If this is what you call gardening, I have had pretty near a sickener of it.
1873		Sl. Dict. 290: Sickener a dose too much of anything. Too much of even a good thing will make a man sick.
1887		M. Roberts Western Avernus (1924) 109: There was no work to be done except railroad work, and of that I had had a sickener.
1894		J. Astley Fifty Years (2nd edn) I 167: I had a sickener of both training and backing bipeds.
1904		Western Times (Wales) 19 Aug. 13/5: Perhaps the soaker we had then gave them a sickener of the country, and no wonder.
1913		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 12 Nov. 3/4: They've a sickener enough. Sir, / Of that fellow In this place: / And when they go to Australia / They don’t want his dirty face.
1930		Hull Dly Mail (Yorks.) 31 July 7/4: Boys in public schools, who had to go through practically compulsory training in Officers’ Training Corps got a sickener of military drill and routine.
1938		F. Anthony ‘Gus Tomlins’ in Me And Gus (1977) 111: The Stanley Road affair had given me a sickener of dances.
1941		K. Tennant Battlers 12: It’s funny about work. [...] I got a sickener of it when I was a kid.
1947		Chelmsford Chron. (Essex) 4 July 1/2: In recent years we have had such a sickener of international strife.

3. a severe, punishing blow; lit something to make a person sick.

1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 30 Apr. n.p.: He wanted but one more like that for a finisher [...] Travers allowed it was a sickener, and that it was.
1883		J. Keane On Blue Water 194: I at once determined that if the ‘old man’ [...] tried any games on me while I was at the ship’s helm, I would give him a real good sickener.