ill
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ɪl/
rhymes: -ɪl
Forms: form: iller
form: more ill
form: illest
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: St. Paul chose to magnify his office when ill men conspired to lessen it.
ref: 1709 December 6, Francis Atterbury, A Sermon Preached before the Sons of the Clergy, at their Anniversary-Meeting, in the Church of St. Paul:
text: A man who is conscious of having an ill character, cannot justly be angry with those who neglect and slight him.
ref: 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC:
glosses: Evil; wicked (of people).
examples: text: ‘Go bring her. It is ill to keep a lady waiting.’
ref: 1999, George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings, Bantam, published 2011, page 2:
glosses: Morally reprehensible (of behaviour etc.); blameworthy.
examples: text: He suffered from ill treatment.
glosses: Indicative of unkind or malevolent intentions; harsh, cruel.
examples: text: ill manners; ill will
text: […]his lordship was out of humour. That was the way Chollacombe described as knaggy an old gager as ever Charles had had the ill-fortune to serve. Stiff-rumped, that's what he was, always rubbing the rust, or riding grub, like he had been for months past.
ref: 1959, Georgette Heyer, chapter 1, in The Unknown Ajax:
glosses: Unpropitious, unkind, faulty, not up to reasonable standard.
examples: text: mentally ill people
text: I've been ill with the flu for the past few days.
text: “We desperately needed the nursing support because our ICUs are so inundated with critically ill Covid patients,” Brown said.
ref: 2021 August 14, Christina Maxouris, “‘Bursting at the seams’: Full ICUs are creating a dangerous ER backlog and forcing hospitals to cancel surgeries”, in CNN:
glosses: Unwell in terms of health or physical condition; sick.
examples: text: Seeing those pictures made me ill.
glosses: Nauseated; having an urge to vomit.
examples: text: This is the illest beat I've ever heard.
text: Biggie Smalls is the illest / Your style is played out, like Arnold wonderin "Whatchu talkin bout, Willis?"
ref: 1994, Biggie Smalls, “The What”:
topics: dancing
hip-hop
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: Sublime, with the connotation of being so in a singularly creative way.
examples: text: That band was ill.
glosses: Extremely bad (bad enough to make one ill). Generally used indirectly with to be.
examples: text: Oh that when the devil and flesh entice the sinner to sport with and make a mock of sin, Prov. x. 23, he would but consider, it is ill jesting with edged tools, it is ill jesting with unquenchable burnings; […]
ref: 1672, George Swinnock, The Incomparableness of God:
text: They arrested everybody—and it is ill to resist a drunken Tommy with a loaded rifle!
ref: 1914, Indian Ink, volume 1, page 32:
glosses: Unwise; not a good idea.
glosses: Bad-tempered.
Synonyms: sense: suffering from a disease
word: diseased
sense: suffering from a disease
word: poorly
sense: suffering from a disease
word: sick
sense: suffering from a disease
word: under the weather
sense: suffering from a disease
word: unwell
sense: suffering from a disease
word: ailing
sense: having an urge to vomit
word: disgusted
sense: having an urge to vomit
word: nauseated
sense: having an urge to vomit
word: nauseous
sense: having an urge to vomit
word: sick
sense: having an urge to vomit
word: sicken
sense: bad
word: bad
sense: bad
word: mal-
sense: in hip-hop slang: sublime
word: dope
word: crank
word: crook
word: green about the gills
word: icky
word: ill
word: indisposed
word: infirm
word: like death warmed over
word: maladive
word: mawkish
word: off one's feed
word: on the Pat and Mick
word: out of sorts
word: Pat and Mick
word: queer
word: sickish
word: sickly
word: sick as a dog
word: sick as a parrot
word: unhealthy
word: valetudinarian
word: valetudinary
Hyponyms: word: diseased
word: nauseated
word: bedbound
word: bedfast
word: bedridden
word: laid up
Derived terms: sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: be taken ill
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: bird of ill omen
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: do ill
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: fall ill
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: house of ill fame
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: ill-adapted
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: ill-being
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: illbeing
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: illbient
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: ill blood
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: illderly
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: ill-ease
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: ill effect
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: ill effects
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: ill fame
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: ill-famed
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: illfare
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: ill feeling
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: ill-fortune
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: ill health
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: ill humor
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: ill humour
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: illish
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: ill-looking
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: ill luck
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: ill name
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: illness
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: ill news spreads apace
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: ill off
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: ill-omened
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: ill-repute
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: illsome
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: ill-starred
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: illth
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: ill-thrift
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: ill-treatment
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: ill turn
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: ill-usage
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: ill-use
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: ill will
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: ill-willed
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: ill-willing
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: ill wind
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: ill-wish
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: ill-wisher
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: illwisher
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: in ill part
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: it's an ill bird that fouls its own nest
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: it's an ill wind
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: it's an ill wind that blows nobody any good
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: it's an ill wind that blows no good
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: it's an ill wind that blows no one any good
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: lie ill in one's mouth
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: mentally ill
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: moorill
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: nonill
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: quarter-ill
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: take ill
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: terminally ill
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: wish someone ill
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: with ill grace
sense: Terms derived from ill (adjective)
word: woman of ill fame