SICKNESS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does sickness mean? 

• SICKNESS (noun)
  The noun SICKNESS has 3 senses:

1. impairment of normal physiological function affecting part or all of an organism

2. defectiveness or unsoundness

3. the state that precedes vomiting

  Familiarity information: SICKNESS used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SICKNESS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Impairment of normal physiological function affecting part or all of an organism

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

illness; malady; sickness; unwellness

Hypernyms ("sickness" is a kind of...):

health problem; ill health; unhealthiness (a state in which you are unable to function normally and without pain)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "sickness"):

ague (a fit of shivering or shaking)

growth ((pathology) an abnormal proliferation of tissue (as in a tumor))

toxaemia; toxaemia of pregnancy; toxemia; toxemia of pregnancy (an abnormal condition of pregnancy characterized by hypertension and edema and protein in the urine)

ozone sickness (illness that can occur to persons exposed to ozone in high-altitude aircraft; characterized by sleepiness and headache and chest pains and itchiness)

indisposition (a slight illness)

hypermotility (excessive movement; especially excessive motility of the gastrointestinal tract)

disease (an impairment of health or a condition of abnormal functioning)

lead poisoning; plumbism; saturnism (toxic condition produced by the absorption of excessive lead into the system)

food poisoning; gastrointestinal disorder (illness caused by poisonous or contaminated food)

aeroembolism; air embolism; bends; caisson disease; decompression sickness; gas embolism (pain resulting from rapid change in pressure)

collapse; prostration (an abrupt failure of function or complete physical exhaustion)

catastrophic illness (severe illness requiring prolonged hospitalization or recovery; usually involves high costs for hospitals and doctors and medicines)

anuresis; anuria (inability to urinate)

amyloidosis (a disorder characterized by deposit of amyloid in organs or tissues; often secondary to chronic rheumatoid arthritis or tuberculosis or multiple myeloma)

condition (an illness, disease, or other medical problem)

Derivation:

sick (affected by an impairment of normal physical or mental function)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Defectiveness or unsoundness

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Context example:

a great sickness of his judgment

Hypernyms ("sickness" is a kind of...):

defectiveness; faultiness (the state of being defective)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The state that precedes vomiting

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

nausea; sickness

Hypernyms ("sickness" is a kind of...):

symptom ((medicine) any sensation or change in bodily function that is experienced by a patient and is associated with a particular disease)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "sickness"):

kinetosis; motion sickness (the state of being dizzy or nauseated because of the motions that occur while traveling in or on a moving vehicle)

morning sickness (nausea early in the day; a characteristic symptom in the early months of pregnancy)

qualm; queasiness; squeamishness (a mild state of nausea)

Derivation:

sick (feeling nausea; feeling about to vomit)

 Context examples 

Disability doesn't mean unable, and it isn't a sickness.

(Disabilities, Department of Health and Human Services)

I go inside. McKeon is dead. Maybe two or three weeks he is dead. A sickness had come upon him so that he could not leave the cabin.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

“Like sea-sickness, I suppose. Some men are subject to it, and others are not.”

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

As my sickness quitted me, I was absorbed by a gloomy and black melancholy that nothing could dissipate.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

The expression of his face was not so much of terror as of mortal sickness.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

“Keep that, in case of sickness,” said my aunt.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

And I cannot but observe, that I never had one hours sickness while I stayed in this island.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

A feeling of sickness or discomfort in the stomach that may come with an urge to vomit.

(Nausea, NCI Dictionary)

They remembered only the latest, which was his weakness and sickness.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

A little disordered always the first twenty-four hours of going to sea, but never knew what sickness was afterwards.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)