This word is still commonly used, as it is in the A.V., where an Englishman would now say “ill” or “unwell.”
1778. Ross had been sick at Spooner’s house, and was kindly treated there.—Maryland Journal, Supplement, May 19.
1788. O’Neil went ten miles off, and told one Poor that Mr. Cleary was sick, and would not live long.—Id., April 1.
1809. The friend of James had been sick, and drooping a considerable time…. He sat out (sic) on his journey; his sick friend felt relieved.—Mass. Spy, Aug. 16.
1813. I am too old and sick to be drafted from the militia.—Boston-Gazette, March 22.
[1813. General Dearborn, being quite ill, was to have left for Albany.—Id., June 24.]
1830. The masters of American merchantmen will seldom believe that a man is sick till the agonies of death take place, it being the chief corner stone of their belief to look after their employers interest first and foremost, and rather to kill a man by hard work and exposure, than to permit him to defraud the owners by his untimely sickness.—N. Ames, ‘A Mariner’s Sketches,’ pp. 33–4.
1861. The resolutions were rushed through the Senate of New Jersey when four members were sick.—O. J. Victor, ‘The History … of the Southern Rebellion,’ i. 356.
