Meaning & use
fall sick
Last updated
Meanings
phraseidiom
to become ill, especially suddenly or after being healthy for a while
Grammar: Used as a verb phrase; the verb fall changes tense (fell sick, has fallen sick) but sick never changes.
Patterns
- someone falls sick
- someone fell sick
- someone has fallen sick
Several students fell sick after eating at the school cafeteria.
If you fall sick during the trip, the hotel can call a doctor for you.
She fell sick just two days before the wedding.
phraseidiomformal
to start suffering from a serious illness over a period, often used in health reports
Grammar: Often used in the plural with groups of people, as in statistics or news writing.
Patterns
- people fall sick with something
- children fall sick from something
Thousands of people fall sick with dengue fever every year in that region.
The report says more elderly patients fall sick during heat waves.
Common combinations
- fall sick with a disease
- He fell sick with pneumonia and spent a week in the hospital.
- fall sick suddenly
- Travelers can fall sick suddenly when they drink unsafe water.
- fall sick after eating something
- Two children fell sick after eating food from a street stall.
- be likely to fall sick
- People with weak immune systems are more likely to fall sick.
Synonyms and how they differ
- get sick
- The everyday American choice; it can also mean feeling sick to your stomach, which "fall sick" does not suggest.
- become ill
- A more formal British option that sounds slightly gentler than "fall sick" and is common in writing.
- come down with something
- Needs an illness after it (come down with the flu) and stresses catching a specific disease.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: fall sick or feel sick? fall sick or sick leave?
fall sick vs feel sick
"Feel sick" means you think you may vomit, not that you have become ill. "Fall sick" means you actually become ill.
fall sick vs sick leave
This is paid time away from work because of illness, not the act of becoming ill.
Practice
Which sentence uses "fall sick" correctly?
Choose one answer.
The phrase takes "with" before the illness: fall sick with malaria. The other prepositions do not fit this fixed expression; "fall sick of" is not used in standard English.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “fall sick”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.