sick man

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See also: sickman

English

Pronunciation

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Noun

sick man (plural sick men)

  1. (idiomatic, usually with of) A weak member of a peer group, especially the weakest.
    • 1854, H.B. Stowe, “America's Ambition and Europe's Dilemma”, in The Living Age, volume 42, page 245:
      The former openly likens Cuba to Turkey, saying that the island is the "sick man" of the West;
    • 1896, Jesse Macy, The English constitution: a commentary on its nature and growth, page 54:
      The House of Lords has now come to be pretty generally looked upon as the "Sick Man" of the English Constitution.
    • 1942 May 19, “The Home Front”, in Los Angeles Times:
      He told how in an economic sense we were one of the Sick Men of the World our industry dilapidated rundown and was not being renewed
    • 1970 January 19, “A Decade of Disappointment for Asia”, in New York Times:
      For Asia as a whole, that target was just about achieved, even when including India and Indonesia, often regarded as the "sick men" of the continent.

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