ailing

/eɪlɪŋ/

/ˈeɪliŋ/

Someone who's ailing is sick. You might visit your ailing grandmother in the hospital.

You can use the adjective ailing to describe someone who's very ill, or use it figuratively, to talk about "our ailing economy," or "the ailing school system." The next time you call in sick to work, you might say, "I can't come in today — I'm afraid I'm ailing." Ailing comes from the verb ail, "trouble or afflict," from the Old English eglan, "to trouble, plague, or pain."

Definitions of ailing

1. adjective

   somewhat ill or prone to illness
   “my poor ailing grandmother”

   synonyms: indisposed, peaked, poorly, seedy, sickly, under the weather, unwell

   ill, sick

   affected by an impairment of normal physical or mental function