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.
  • She was sickened by Good’s death.
    — Lilly Kersh, Dallas Morning News, 17 Jan. 2026
  • The prison guards brought her a milky porridge with a piece of oily fish that sickened her.
    — J Wortham, New York Times, 2 May 2024
  • And you can even be sickened with multiple types of the flu at once.
    — Matt Rocheleau, BostonGlobe.com, 5 Mar. 2018
  • Blooms also have been blamed for fish kills and can sicken swimmers.
    — CBS News, 22 Mar. 2018
  • Nine people in eight states appear to have been sickened by their pet guinea pigs.
    — Shari Rudavsky, Indianapolis Star, 14 May 2018
  • How many people did cruise ship outbreak sicken?
    — Hali Smith may 8, Idaho Statesman, 8 May 2026
  • One way to reduce the number of birds at your feeders is to sicken them.
    — Jim Williams, Star Tribune, 2 Feb. 2021
  • Gambino rubs our noses in it, wants the viewer to be shocked and sickened by it.
    — Greg Kot, chicagotribune.com, 9 May 2018
  • Over the past two winters, the flu sickened more people than Covid.
    — Theresa Gaffney, STAT, 27 Apr. 2026
  • 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
  • The outbreak has sickened people from as young as less than a year to 87 years old.
    — Jonathan Lapook, CBS News, 15 June 2018
  • Disease outbreaks would have been common, with dozens sickened at a time.
    — Claire Cameron, Scientific American, 22 Dec. 2025
  • Those sickened include patients younger than 1 year old and up to age 78.
    — Cara Lynn Shultz, PEOPLE, 30 Apr. 2026
  • Most of those sickened were not vaccinated, and two children died.
    — Caitlin Yilek, CBS News, 5 Jan. 2026
  • Just thinking about it totally sickens me.
    — R. Eric Thomas, Chicago Tribune, 3 Jan. 2026
  • The way prosecutors have to tap-dance around the law just to get any type of justice is sickening.
    — Monique Judge, The Root, 13 July 2017
  • The outbreak has sickened at least 13 infants in 10 states.
    — CNN Money, 9 Nov. 2025
  • The outbreak is now believed to have caused the deaths of three people and sickened several more.
    — Adam Kovac, Scientific American, 7 May 2026
  • In all, 48 babies were sickened since 2023.
    — CBS News, 27 Feb. 2026
  • At their worst, incorrect cleaning methods and techniques can sicken or kill you.
    — Jolie Kerr, Washington Post, 14 June 2026
  • Still, Rogge and other researchers couldn’t say for certain what in the mussels would sicken the dogs.
    — Tim Prudente, baltimoresun.com, 11 July 2018
  • In two months, 111 people have been sickened by the vaccine-preventable virus.
    — CBS News, 16 Dec. 2025
  • And in Hawaii, the virus caused a popular hiking spot to close after dozens of campers were sickened with the virus.
    — Cara Lynn Shultz, People.com, 30 Dec. 2024
  • Measles once sickened millions of Americans and killed hundreds each year.
    — Suhail Bhat, USA Today, 2 Oct. 2025
  • That’s what sickened at least six people who were on the Hondius, and it is suspected in at least two more cases.
    — Erika Edwards, NBC news, 11 May 2026
  • The outbreak has killed one person and sickened at least 75 others across 13 states.
    — Samuel Burke, Fortune, 29 Oct. 2024
  • The disease has killed more than 9,000 and sickened one million Haitians.
    — Jacqueline Charles, miamiherald, 28 Feb. 2018

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.

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