Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of, relating to, or typical of a valetudinarian.
  • noun A valetudinarian.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Same as valetudinarian.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Infirm; sickly; valetudinarian.
  • noun A valetudinarian.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective obsolete sickly, infirm, valetudinarian

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective of or relating to or characteristic of a person who is a valetudinarian

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The Lady of Lochleven rose from the bedside, and darted a penetrating look at the elder valetudinary.

    The Abbot 2008

  • Governor himself, expressed that settled peevishness and ill temper which characterize the morning hours of a valetudinary debauchee.

    Anne of Geierstein 2008

  • The whole season being wet, cold, and northerly, people were, for the most part, healthy during winter; but early in the spring very many, indeed, the greater part, were valetudinary.

    Of The Epidemics 2007

  • So saying, he laughed very heartily, and even seemed to enjoy the retaliation which had been exacted at his own expence; but lady Bullford looked very grave; and in all probability thought the lieutenant had carried his resentment too far, considering that her husband was valetudinary — but, according to the proverb, he that will play at bowls must expect to meet with rubbers.

    The Expedition of Humphry Clinker 2004

  • The other, that I was now sitting in a damp room, a circumstance, though it had hitherto escaped my notice from the color of the bricks, which was by no means to be neglected in a valetudinary state.

    The Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon 2004

  • An _adagio_ may set a gouty father to sleep, and a _capriccio_ may operate successfully on the nerves of a valetudinary mother.

    Primitive Psycho-Therapy and Quackery Robert Means Lawrence

  • Plato, in his "Republic," blames Herodicus (one of the teachers of that great doctor Hippocrates) for showing to delicate, sickly persons, the means whereby to prolong their valetudinary existence, as Herodicus himself (naturally a very rickety fellow) had contrived to do.

    The International Magazine, Volume 2, No. 2, January, 1851 Various

  • Beside these suffering men Lord George lay on a floor all night, having given up the minister's house in Musselburgh, which had been destined as his quarters, to those who were valetudinary.

    Memoirs of the Jacobites of 1715 and 1745 Volume III. Mrs. Thomson

  • It renders the habit of society dangerously valetudinary: it is taking periodical doses of mercury sublimate, and swallowing down repeated provocatives of cantharides to our love of liberty.

    Paras. 100-124 1909

  • The other, that I was now sitting in a damp room, a circumstance, though it had hitherto escaped my notice from the color of the bricks, which was by no means to be neglected in a valetudinary state.

    The Works of Henry Fielding, Volume Six: Miscellanies 1900

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