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Rickety vs Sickly - What's the difference?

rickety | sickly |

As adjectives the difference between rickety and sickly

is that rickety is of an object: not strong or sturdy, as because of poor construction or upkeep; not safe or secure; giddy; shaky while sickly is frequently ill; often in poor health; given to becoming ill.

As a verb sickly is

to make sickly.

As an adverb sickly is

in a sick manner.

rickety

English

Alternative forms

* ricketty

Adjective

(er)
  • Of an object: not strong or sturdy, as because of poor construction or upkeep; not safe or secure; giddy; shaky.
    • He hesitated about climbing such a small, rickety ladder.
  • Of a person: feeble in the joints; tottering.
    • The rickety old man hardly managed to climb the stairs.
  • Affected with or suffering from rickets.

    • Synonyms

    * (not held or fixed securely and likely to fall over) precarious, unsteady, shaky, tottering, unsafe, unstable, wobbly

    sickly

    English

    Adjective

    (er)
  • Frequently ill; often in poor health; given to becoming ill.
    • a sickly child
  • Having the appearance of sickness or ill health; appearing ill, infirm or unhealthy; pale.
    • a sickly plant
  • * Dryden
    • The moon grows sickly at the sight of day.
  • Weak; faint; suggesting unhappiness.
    • a sickly smile
  • Somewhat sick; disposed to illness; attended with disease.
  • * Shakespeare
    • This physic but prolongs thy sickly days.
  • Tending to produce disease.
    • a sickly''' autumn; a '''sickly climate
    (Cowper)
  • Tending to produce nausea; sickening.
    • a sickly''' smell; '''sickly sentimentality

    Related terms

    * sickliness

    Verb

  • To make sickly.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought.
  • * 1840 , S. M. Heaton, George Heaton, Thoughts on the Litany, by a naval officer's orphan daughter (page 58)
  • * 1871 , Gail Hamilton, Country living and country thinking (page 109)
    • He evidently thinks the sweet little innocents never heard or thought of such a thing before, and would go on burying their curly heads in books, and sicklying their rosy faces with "the pale cast of thought" till the end of time

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • In a sick manner.
  • * 2010 , Rowan Somerville, The End of Sleep (page 66)
    • The creaseless horizontal face of the giant smiled sickly , leering.