sickly
adj.adj. looking or feeling weak and unhealthy. It can also describe something that is too sweet or smells too strong in an unpleasant way.
adj. habitually unwell or appearing physically weak and pale. Also describes sensory qualities, such as taste or smell, that are excessively sweet or sentimental to the point of causing nausea.
The child looked sickly and stayed home from school.
The room was filled with the sickly sweet smell of rotting fruit that had been left in the sun.
The pale, sickly light of the moon filtered through the heavy clouds, casting long and distorted shadows across the abandoned courtyard.
From Middle English seekly, sekely, siklich, sekeliche, equivalent to sick + -ly. Possibly a modification of Old English sīcle (“sickly”) and/or derived from Old Norse sjúkligr (“sickly”). Cognate with Dutch ziekelijk, Middle High German siechlich, Danish sygelig, Swedish sjuklig, Icelandic sjúklegur. The verb is from the adjective.
From sick + -ly.
Often used to modify nouns related to appearance, such as 'complexion' or 'pallor', or sensory nouns like 'smell' and 'sweetness'.