In the 16th century, Turkish women could divorce their husbands if the man failed to keep his family’s pot filled with coffee.
SICKER
Etymology 1
Adjective
sicker
The comparative form of sick.
Etymology 2
Adjective
sicker
(obsolete, outside, dialects) Certain.
(obsolete, outside, dialects) Secure, safe.
Adverb
sicker
(obsolete, outside, dialects) Certainly.
(obsolete, outside, dialects) Securely.
Etymology 3
Verb
sicker (third-person singular simple present sickers, present participle sickering, simple past and past participle sickered)
(mining, UK, dialect) To percolate, trickle, or ooze, as water through a crack.
Anagrams
• Rickes, Riecks, ickers, scrike
Source: Wiktionary
Sick"er, v. i. Etym: [AS. sicerian.] (Mining)
Definition: To percolate, trickle, or ooze, as water through a crack. [Also written sigger, zigger, and zifhyr.] [Prov. Eng.]
Sick"er, Sik"er, a. Etym: [OE. siker; cf. OS. sikur, LG. seker, D. zeker, Dan. sikker, OHG. sihhur, G. sicher; all fr. L. securus. See Secure, Sure.]
Definition: Sure; certain; trusty. [Obs. or Prov. Eng. & Scot.] Burns. When he is siker of his good name. Chaucer.
Sick"er, Sik"er, adv.
Definition: Surely; certainly. [Obs.] Believe this as siker as your creed. Chaucer. Sicker, Willye, thou warnest well. Spenser.
SICK
Sick, a. [Compar. Sicker; superl. Sickest.] Etym: [OE. sek, sik, ill, AS. seĂłc; akin to OS. siok, seoc, OFries. siak, D. ziek, G. siech, OHG. sioh, Icel. sj, Sw. sjuk, Dan. syg, Goth. siuks ill, siukan to be ill.]
1. Affected with disease of any kind; ill; indisposed; not in health. See the Synonym under Illness. Simon's wife's mother lay sick of a fever. Mark i. 30. Behold them that are sick with famine. Jer. xiv. 18.
2. Affected with, or attended by, nausea; inclined to vomit; as, sick at the stomach; a sick headache.
3. Having a strong dislike; disgusted; surfeited; -- with of; as, to be sick of flattery. He was not so sick of his master as of his work. L'Estrange.
4. Corrupted; imperfect; impaired; weakned. So great is his antipathy against episcopacy, that, if a seraphim himself should be a bishop, he would either find or make some sick feathers in his wings. Fuller. Sick bay (Naut.), an apartment in a vessel, used as the ship's hospital.
– Sick bed, the bed upon which a person lies sick.
– Sick berth, an apartment for the sick in a ship of war.
– Sick headache (Med.), a variety of headache attended with disorder of the stomach and nausea.
– Sick list, a list containing the names of the sick.
– Sick room, a room in which a person lies sick, or to which he is confined by sickness.
Note: [These terms, sick bed, sick berth, etc., are also written both hyphened and solid.]
Syn.
– Diseased; ill; disordered; distempered; indisposed; weak; ailing; feeble; morbid.
Sick, n.
Definition: Sickness. [Obs.] Chaucer.
Sick, v. i.
Definition: To fall sick; to sicken. [Obs.] Shak.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
Recent Word Finds
Word of the Day
6 May 2025
HEEDLESS
(adjective) marked by or paying little heed or attention; “We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics”--Franklin D. Roosevelt; “heedless of danger”; “heedless of the child’s crying”
Coffee Trivia
