ail
To cause to suffer; to trouble, afflict. (Now chiefly in interrogative or indefinite constructions.)
Adjective
- Painful; troublesome.
Origin
Inherited from Middle English eyle, eile, from Old English eġle (“hideous, loathsome, hateful, horrid, troublesome, grievous, painful”). Cognate with Gothic 𐌰𐌲𐌻𐌿𐍃 (aglus, “hard, difficult”).
Forms
Noun obsolete
- An ailment; trouble; illness.
Origin
Inherited from Middle English eilen, from Old English eġlan, eġlian (“to trouble, afflict”), from Proto-West Germanic *aglijan, from Proto-Germanic *aglijaną (“to trouble, vex”), cognate with Gothic 𐌰𐌲𐌻𐌾𐌰𐌽 (agljan, “to distress”).
Forms
Noun West Country
- The awn of barley or other types of corn.
Origin
Inherited from Middle English eile, eyle, eiȝle, from Old English eġl (“an ail; awn; beard of barley; mote”), from Proto-Germanic *agilō (“awn”), related to *ahaz (“ear (of grain)”). Cognate with German Achel, Egel, Ägel.
Forms
Verb
- To cause to suffer; to trouble, afflict. (Now chiefly in interrogative or indefinite constructions.)
- Have some chicken soup. It's good for what ails you.
- What aileth thee, Hagar? - 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 21:17:
- Not content with having in 1996 put a Defence of Marriage Act (DOMA) on the statue book, Congress has now begun to hold hearings on a Respect for Marriage Act. Defended, respected: what could possibly ail marriage in...
- To be ill; to suffer; to be troubled.
- When he ails ever so little […] he is so peevish. - 1740, Samuel Richardson, Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded: