adj

• (pathology) Of or pertaining to, or affected by, rickets (“a disorder of infancy and early childhood due to a deficiency of vitamin D, causing soft or weak bones”).
  "Nor was there time to do much more than distribute some sweet to the pallid rachitic children."
• (figurative) In a precarious or weak condition; likely to break down or collapse; feeble, rickety.
  "On Dec. 2, we found ourselves rolling in the roads of pestilential Lagos, our lullaby the sullen distant roar, whilst a dusky white gleam smoking over the deadly bar in the darkening horizon threatened us with a disagreeable landing at the last, the youngest, and the most rachitic of Great Britain's large but now exceedingly neglected family of colonies."