Insidious vs Sick - What's the difference?

insidious | sick |

As adjectives the difference between insidious and sick

is that insidious is producing harm in a stealthy, often gradual, manner while sick is in poor health.

As a noun sick is

sick people in general as a group.

As a verb sick is

to vomit or sick can be (rare).

insidious

English

Adjective

(en adjective)

Producing harm in a stealthy, often gradual, manner.

* 1847 , George Lippard, The Quaker City: or, The monks of Monk-Hall

Strong and vigorous man as he looks, Livingstone has been for years the victim of a secret and insidious disease.

* 1997 , Matthew Wood, The book of herbal wisdom: using plants as medicine

At some point in time they may become the source of an insidious cancer.

* 2007 , Sharon Weinstein, Ada Lawrence Plumer, Principles and practice of intravenous therapy

The nurse always must be alert to signs of slow leak or insidious infiltration.

Intending to entrap; alluring but harmful.

* Nathaniel Hawthorne

The insidious whisper of the bad angel.

* 1948 , D.V. Chitaley (editor or publisher), All India Reporter , volume 3, page 341:

All these facts clearly appear to me now to establish that the sanctioned scheme was a part of a bigger and […] more insidious scheme which was to hoodwink the creditors and to firmly establish and consolidate the position […]

* 1969 , Dorothy Brewster, John Angus Burrell, Dead reckonings in fiction

The atmosphere of this insidious city comes out to meet him the moment he touches the European shore; for in London he meets Maria Gostrey just over from France.

* 2005 , Anita Desai, Voices in the City , page 189:

This seemed to her the worst defilement into which this insidious city had cheated her and in her agitation, she nearly ran into the latrine, […]

* 2007 , Joseph Epstein, Narcissus Leaves the Pool , page 171:

This is the insidious way sports entrap you: you follow a player, which commits you to his team. You begin to acquire scraps of utterly useless information about teammates, managers, owners, trainers, agents, lawyers.

Hansel and Gretel were lured by the witch’s insidious gingerbread house.

(nonstandard) Treacherous.

* 1858 , Phineas Camp Headley, The life of the Empress Josephine: first wife of Napoleon

But with whom do you contract that alliance? With the natural enemy of France — that insidious house of Austria — which detests our country from feeling, system, and necessity.

* 1912 , Ralph Straus, The prison without a wall

‘Believe me,’ he shouted, ‘these insidious folk talk dangerous nonsense. I hear they are spouting out their ridiculous platitudes not five miles from this park in which we are standing…’

The battle was lost due to the actions of insidious defectors.

Derived terms

* insidiously * insidiousness

References

* * *

sick

English

(wikipedia sick)

Etymology 1

Middle English sek, sik, from (etyl) .

Adjective

(er)

In poor health.

* {{quote-book, year=a1420, year_published=1894, author=The British Museum Additional MS, 12,056

, by=(Lanfranc of Milan), title=Lanfranc's "Science of cirurgie." citation , chapter=Wounds complicated by the Dislocation of a Bone, isbn=1163911380 , publisher=K. Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co, location=London, editor=Robert von Fleischhacker , page=63, passage=Ne take noon hede to brynge togidere þe parties of þe boon þat is to-broken or dislocate, til viij. daies ben goon in þe wyntir, & v. in þe somer; for þanne it schal make quytture, and be sikir from swellynge; & þanne brynge togidere þe brynkis eiþer þe disiuncture after þe techynge þat schal be seid in þe chapitle of algebra.}}

* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)

, chapter=7 citation , passage=‘Children crawled over each other like little grey worms in the gutters,’ he said. ‘The only red things about them were their buttocks and they were raw. Their faces looked as if snails had slimed on them and their mothers were like great sick beasts whose byres had never been cleared. […]’}}

(colloquial) Mentally unstable, disturbed.

(colloquial) In bad taste.

Having an urge to vomit.

(slang) Very good, excellent, awesome.

In poor condition.

(agriculture) Failing to sustain adequate harvests of crop, usually specified.

Tired of or annoyed by something.

Synonyms

* (in poor health) ill, not well, poorly (British), sickly, unwell * (mentally unstable) disturbed, twisted, warped. * (having an urge to vomit) nauseated, nauseous * rad, wicked * See also

Antonyms

* (in poor health) fit, healthy, well * (excellent) crap, naff, uncool

Derived terms

* airsick * be sick * brainsick * carsick * dogsick * fall sick * heartsick * homesick * iron-sick, iron sick, ironsick * junk sick * lovesick * nailsick, nail sick, nailsick * seasick * sick and tired * sick and twisted * sick as a dog * sick bag * sickbay * sickbed * sick building syndrome * sick day * sicken * sickening * sickhouse * sickie * sickish * sick joke * sickly * sickness * sick note * sick pay * sick puppy * sicko * sickout * sickroom * sick to one's stomach * soulsick * thoughtsick

Noun

(-)

Sick people in general as a group.

We have to cure the sick .

(colloquial) vomit.

He lay there in a pool of his own sick .

Synonyms

* (vomit) See

Verb

(en verb)

To vomit.

:I woke up at 4 am and sicked on the floor.

(obsolete) To fall sick; to sicken.

* circa 1598 , William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, part 2 :

Our great-grandsire, Edward, sick'd and died.

Etymology 2

Verb

(en verb)

(rare)

* 1920 , James Oliver Curwood, "Back to God's Country"

"Wapi," she almost screamed, "go back! Sick' 'em, Wapi—'''sick''' 'em—'''sick''' 'em—' sick 'em!"

* 1938 , Eugene Gay-Tifft, translator, The Saga of Frank Dover by Johannes Buchholtz, 2005 Kessinger Publishing edition, ISBN 141915222X, page 125,

When we were at work swabbing the deck, necessarily barelegged, Pelle would sick the dog on us; and it was an endless source of pleasure to him when the dog succeeded in fastening its teeth in our legs and making the blood run down our ankles.

* 1957 , , 1991 LB Books edition, page 154,

"...is just something God sicks on people who have the gall to accuse Him of having created an ugly world."

* 2001 (publication date), Anna Heilman, Never Far Away: The Auschwitz Chronicles of Anna Heilman , University of Calgary Press, ISBN 1552380408, page 82,

Now they find a new entertainment: they sick the dog on us.

1000 English basic words