Word family noun sick the sick sickness sicko adjective sick sickening sickly verb sicken adverb sickeningly sickly
From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishsickeningsick‧en‧ing /ˈsɪkənɪŋ, ˈsɪknɪŋ/ adjective 1 DISGUSTINGvery shocking, annoying, or upsetting SYN disgusting Police described it as a sickening racial attack. their sickening hypocrisyit is sickening that It is sickening that human beings have done this to two innocent young women.2 → sickening thud/crash/sound etc3 very unpleasant and making you feel as if you want to vomit The sickening stench of rotting rubbish rose into the air.4 British English spokenJEALOUS making you feel jealous ‘Helen’s just bought herself a huge house in the South of France.’ ‘God, how sickening!’ —sickeningly adverbExamples from the Corpus
sickening• And the sickening clamour of street noises beyond the cloister wall, the sickening odour of those who made them.• There was a sickening crash and the sound of broken glass as the two trains collided.• Many broiler chickens suffer a similar, sickening fate.• The sickening feel of woollen gloves being pulled on to your hands and hitting and blunting your fingertips so touch was lost.• At sunrise, the sickening reality dawned that bullets, his bullets, had mown down human beings.• With a sickening reverberation the words stayed in her mind all the way back to her room.• the sickening smell of rotting meat• She'd heard sickening tales of barbarous Gestapo torture, and of prisoners who were never seen again.• His head hit the door with a sickening thud. 