How to Use sicken in a Sentence

sicken

verb
  • Many people sickened and died on the long voyage.
  • The bacteria in the drinking water sickened the whole village.
  • We were sickened by the reports of violence.
  • Among the 14 states listed on the CDC’s map, Ohio has 11 sickened, the most of the outbreak.
    Susan Selasky, Detroit Free Press, 5 Jan. 2024
  • The helplessness of the young victims and the savagery of the attack sickened France.
    John Leicester, Anchorage Daily News, 8 June 2023
  • One way to reduce the number of birds at your feeders is to sicken them.
    Jim Williams, Star Tribune, 2 Feb. 2021
  • The lake stinks, and signs go up warning that the toxic sludge can sicken children and kill pets.
    Emma Marris, The Atlantic, 5 June 2021
  • An oil spill in 2018 caused a fire that killed five people and sickened hundreds in the port city of Balikpapan.
    Achmad Ibrahim, ajc, 3 Mar. 2023
  • The viruses best adapted to humans have co-evolved over millions of years to infect but rarely sicken us.
    Sarah Zhang, The Atlantic, 7 Apr. 2021
  • Despite having the power to sicken, there are few laws in the United States to regulate odor.
    New York Times, 13 Jan. 2022
  • Although the disease is not known to sicken humans, some scientists fear that could change.
    Washington Post, 16 Mar. 2022
  • Most of the viruses that fall into the bird-flu category do not sicken humans.
    oregonlive, 18 May 2022
  • Thousands of students said they were sickened by noxious fumes in the incidents.
    Bradford Betz, Fox News, 4 June 2023
  • Pets can eat a small amount of unseasoned turkey without the skin but should not be given table scraps since the salt, fat, and bones can sicken pets.
    Ingrid Vasquez, Peoplemag, 23 Nov. 2022
  • Daily Harvest has not yet specified what caused the tara flour to sicken people.
    Daniella Silva, NBC News, 21 July 2022
  • The tests only sample a small part of each crop, so mold may grow undetected and may sicken those who eat it or inhale its spores.
    Robert McCoppin, chicagotribune.com, 1 Jan. 2022
  • Experts say the rush to move them back to shelters, combined with the lack of air-quality upgrades, is likely to sicken and kill people.
    Kevin T. Dugan, Curbed, 16 Aug. 2021
  • The virus can sicken otherwise healthy infants and cause pneumonia and inflammation of the small airways in the lungs.
    Emily Alpert Reyes, Los Angeles Times, 13 Dec. 2023
  • In places like Baytown, working-class people depend on the very companies that sicken them to earn a living.
    Kathleen Flynn, ProPublica, 2 Nov. 2021
  • There have been anecdotal reports that pets or livestock have been sickened.
    Patrick Orsagos, ajc, 17 Feb. 2023
  • The federal agency said the number of people sickened by the outbreak is likely much higher.
    Jennifer Calfas, WSJ, 1 Dec. 2023
  • Just last month, for example, an outbreak linked to raw milk sickened a group of children in Minnesota.
    Ashia Aubourg, SELF, 22 Aug. 2023
  • Across North America The twin threats have sickened people across the continent with little relief in sight.
    Adam Liptak Anemona Hartocollis Roger Cohen Somini Sengupta, New York Times, 30 June 2023
  • There were wind turbines that could strike the giant birds and lead bullet fragments in hunted animals that could sicken and kill.
    Rosanna Xiastaff Writer, Los Angeles Times, 17 May 2022
  • Utah’s foothills, its caustic sap can injure and sicken curious kids.
    Erin Alberty, The Salt Lake Tribune, 7 Apr. 2021
  • Not every virus that can jump from other species to humans can sicken them, and not every virus can spread further from person to person.
    Andrew Joseph, STAT, 29 Apr. 2022
  • One key omission was birds, which can carry viruses that are known to sicken humans, the researchers acknowledged.
    Andrew Joseph, STAT, 29 Apr. 2022
  • The defendant in this case allegedly used deception to sicken her spouse.
    NBC News, 18 Jan. 2021
  • If new coronavirus variants sicken larger numbers of people, the old rules — or something like them — could be back.
    Sig Christenson, San Antonio Express-News, 14 Apr. 2022
  • There is a more direct way to learn how Omicron compares to earlier variants in its ability to sicken and kill.
    Melissa Healy, Los Angeles Times, 12 Aug. 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'sicken.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: