ill
Language: English
Part of speech: adv
Pronunciation: ipa: /ɪl/
rhymes: -ɪl
Forms: form: worse
form: more ill
form: worst
form: most ill
Etymology: From Middle English ille (“evil; wicked”), from Old Norse illr (adjective), illa (adverb), ilt (noun), from Proto-Germanic *ilhilaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁elḱ- (whence Latin ulcus (“sore”), Ancient Greek ἕλκος (hélkos, “wound, ulcer”), Sanskrit अर्शस् (árśas, “hemorrhoids”)).
Cognates
Cognate with Scots and Yola ill, Danish ilde (“bad”), Faroese, Icelandic illur (“bad, ill, wicked”), Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk ille (“bad”), Swedish illa (“badly; poorly”).
Senses: examples: text: Such jealousy ill becomes her; she can ill afford another gaffe like that.
text: He would have conversed as usual; but his attempts were so ill seconded, that he was fain to take refuge in the letters that lay beside him.
ref: 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “A Proposal of Marriage”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 126:
text: Within, I found it, as I had expected, transcendently dismal. The slowly changing shadows waved on it from the heavy trees, were doleful in the last degree; the house was ill-placed, ill-built, ill-planned, and ill-fitted.
ref: 1859 December 13, Charles Dickens [et al.], “(please specify the name of the story)”, in Charles Dickens, editor, The Haunted House. The Extra Christmas Number of All the Year Round […], volume II, London: […] C[harles] Whiting, […], →OCLC:
text: In both groups, however, we find copious and intricate speciation so that, often, species limits are narrow and ill defined.
ref: 1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, page 3:
text: His inflexibility and blindness ill become a leader, for a leader must temper justice with mercy.
ref: 1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela, London: Abacus, published 2010, page 541:
text: Is it because this supposes an undifferentiated violence towards others and oneself that I could ill imagine in a woman?
ref: 2006, Julia Borossa (translator), Monique Canto-Sperber (quoted author), in Libération, 2002 February 2, quoted in Élisabeth Badinter (quoting author), Dead End Feminism, Polity, page 40
glosses: Not well; imperfectly, badly
Synonyms: illy
Derived terms: sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-advised
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-assorted
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill at ease
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-begotten
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill behaved
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-behaved
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-boding
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-bred
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-chosen
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-concealed
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-conceived
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-conditioned
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-considered
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-constructed
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-defined
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-deserved
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-directed
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-disguised
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-disposed
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-equipped
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-fated
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-favoured
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-fed
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-fitting
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-formed
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-founded
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-got gains
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-gotten
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-gotten gains
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-gotten gains never prosper
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-groomed
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-grounded
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-informed
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-intentioned
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-judged
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-kempt
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-lit
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: illlit
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-mannered
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-matched
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-named
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-natured
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-placed
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-posed
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-prepared
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-proportioned
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-qualified
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-received
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-scathe
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-seen
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-sorted
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-spent
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-suited
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-tempered
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-thought-out
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-timed
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-treat
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: ill-use
sense: Terms derived from ill (adverb)
word: speak ill of