Definitions

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

  • adjective Revolting or disgusting; loathsome.
  • adjective Causing sickness.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Making sick; causing or tending to cause faintness, nausea, disgust, or loathing: as, sickening sounds; sickening servility.

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

  • adjective Causing sickness; specif., causing surfeit or disgust; nauseating.

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

  • adjective Causing sickness or disgust.
  • verb Present participle of sicken.

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

  • adjective causing or able to cause nausea

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Rupert Murdoch defiantly insisted on Tuesday he was not responsible for what he called "sickening and horrible invasions" of privacy committed by his company, claiming he had been betrayed by disgraceful unidentified colleagues and had known nothing of the cover-up of phone hacking.

    Rupert Murdoch's phone-hacking humble pie 2011

  • If you recall, just before he became president, Prince Turki, the Saudi ambassador to the United States had a piece in the "Financial Times" criticizing what he called the sickening legacy of the Bush administration with regard to the Middle East.

    CNN Transcript Apr 3, 2009 2009

  • What's sickening, is that people are not accepting this proof because he is black and his daddy is from Kenya.

    White House slams latest 'birther' move 2010

  • How sickening is it to know that their love ones are being discrimnated against, while they are on the battlefield fighting for those people who are being racists.

    Republican senator won't meet with Sotomayor 2009

  • The exploitation of human weakness both fascinates and disgusts him, and he is able to weave the familiar elements of his fictional universe into a plot that unwinds satisfyingly and with a certain sickening inevitability.

    Old Media Monday: Reviewing the Reviewers 2008

  • What's really sickening is that some maladjusted souls would take the time to insult a group of people that choose to express themselves, inspired by a classic graphic novel.

    Cool Stuff: Watchmen Tribute Art Show | /Film 2008

  • This weekend in sickening episode of political cynicism Livingstone cheerleaders dragged out the corpse of Stephen Lawrence onto the stage courtesy of his duped mother.

    Black Issues or White Guilt Newmania 2007

  • She almost smiles, chewing and swallowing, her expression sickening yet satisfied.

    Picture Dreams 2009

  • Anyway, what so sickening is to read Cheney's quote and know that he is part of a cabal that has failed to capture -- strike that -- failed to make the effort to capture Osama Bin Laden.

    Is That Legal?: Cheney The Fraud 2006

  • Anyway, what so sickening is to read Cheney's quote and know that he is part of a cabal that has failed to capture -- strike that -- failed to make the effort to capture Osama Bin Laden.

    Is That Legal?: September 2006 Archives 2006

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