Definition of "valetudinarian" []

• A sickly or weak person, especially one who is constantly and morbidly concerned with his or her health: "She affected to be spunky about her ailments and afflictions, but she was in fact an utterly self-centered valetudinarian” ( Louis Auchincloss). (noun)
• Chronically ailing; sickly. (adjective)
• Constantly and morbidly concerned with one's health. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "At this moment, the stranger who had put the coachman and groom right about the word valetudinarian, rose from the seat he had occupied in the corner of the room, and uttering a deep, hollow groan, walked towards the door."
• "I never write 'valetudinarian' at all, for not even hunger and wretchedness can humble me to the point where I will do a word like that for seven cents; I wouldn't do it for fifteen."
• "I never write 'valetudinarian' at all, for not even hunger and wretchedness can humble me to the point where I will do a word like that for seven cents;"