sick man
English
Pronunciation
Audio (AU) (file)
Noun
sick man (plural sick men)
- (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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Synonyms
- (a weak member of a group): weak sister