Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. illness.

1887

‘’Arry at the Sea-Side’ in Punch 10 Sept. 111/1: Relations are that bloomin’ selfish, it fair gives a feller the sick.

2. (drugs, also kick-sick, sickness) the illness that accompanies withdrawal from drug addiction; thus get/take one’s sick/sickness off, to relieve one’s withdrawal symptoms.

1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
c.1951		N. Algren ‘Watch Out for Daddy’ in Entrapment (2009) 128: Daddy don’t let hisself come sick in his mind, heart and bowels like me. He puts his own sickness down for the sake of mine.
c.1951		N. Algren ‘Watch Out for Daddy’ in Entrapment (2009) 133: Then the big sick hit me bigger and sicker than before.
1959		J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore 167: Sickness – Narcotic withdrawal distress.
1971		R.D. Pharr S.R.O. (1998) 89: ‘If I’d had to share I’d of hardly got my sickness off’.
1972		E. Grogan Ringolevio 41: That [i.e. an injection of heroin] took his sick off for the time being.
1989		(con. 1950s) Courtwright & Des Jarlais Addicts Who Survived 140: When he would go in to talk about his ‘sickness’ the doctor would tell him ‘You don’t have to go through all this.’.
1990		(con. 1930s–60s) H. Huncke Guilty of Everything (1998) 277: I had to do the whole five grains just to get my sickness off. I was in bad shape.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 15: I just need one to take off the sick.
1995		J. Stahl Permanent Midnight 367: My paranoia [...] has clocked in along with the kick-sick.
1997		L. Davies Candy 26: Until about midday I felt fine with the dope in my system [...] I thought maybe the descent into sickness wouldn’t happen.
2001		G. Pelecanos Right As Rain 237: The man [...] had a zero kind of look on his face like he had the sickness.