ill

Not well; imperfectly, badly

Adjective

  1. Evil; wicked (of people).
    • St. Paul chose to magnify his office when ill men conspired to lessen it. - 1709 December 6, Francis Atterbury, A Sermon Preached before the Sons of the Clergy, at their Anniversary-Meeting, in the Church of St. Paul:
    • A man who is conscious of having an ill character, cannot justly be angry with those who neglect and slight him. - 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI),...
  2. Morally reprehensible (of behaviour etc.); blameworthy.
    • ‘Go bring her. It is ill to keep a lady waiting.’ - 1999, George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings, Bantam, published 2011, page 2:
  3. Indicative of unkind or malevolent intentions; harsh, cruel.
    • He suffered from ill treatment.
  4. Unpropitious, unkind, faulty, not up to reasonable standard.
    • ill manners; ill will
    • […]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...
  5. Unwell in terms of health or physical condition; sick.
    • mentally ill people
    • I've been ill with the flu for the past few days.
    • “We desperately needed the nursing support because our ICUs are so inundated with critically ill Covid patients,” Brown said. - 2021 August 14, Christina Maxouris, “‘Bursting at the seams’: Full ICUs are creating a...
  6. Nauseated; having an urge to vomit.
    • Seeing those pictures made me ill.
  7. Sublime, with the connotation of being so in a singularly creative way.
    • This is the illest beat I've ever heard.
    • Biggie Smalls is the illest / Your style is played out, like Arnold wonderin "Whatchu talkin bout, Willis?" - 1994, Biggie Smalls, “The What”:
  8. Extremely bad (bad enough to make one ill). Generally used indirectly with to be.
    • That band was ill.
  9. Unwise; not a good idea.
    • 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; […] - 1672,...
    • They arrested everybody—and it is ill to resist a drunken Tommy with a loaded rifle! - 1914, Indian Ink, volume 1, page 32:
  10. Bad-tempered.

Origin

From Middle English ille (“evil; wicked”), from Old Norse íllr (adjective), ílla (adverb), ílt (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”).

Forms

iller more ill illest most ill

Synonyms

diseased poorly sick under the weather unwell ailing disgusted nauseated nauseous sicken bad mal- dope crank crook green about the gills icky ill indisposed infirm like death warmed over lousy maladive mawkish

Antonyms

fine hale healthy in good health well good wack

Hyponyms

cancerous diseased nauseated bedbound bedfast bedridden laid up

Derived

be taken ill bird of ill omen do ill fall ill house of ill fame ill-adapted illbeing ill-being illbient ill blood illderly ill-ease ill effect ill effects ill fame ill-famed illfare ill feeling ill-fortune ill health ill humor ill humour illish ill-looking

Adverb

  1. Not well; imperfectly, badly
    • Such jealousy ill becomes her; she can ill afford another gaffe like that.
    • 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. - 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “A Proposal of Marriage”, in Ethel...
    • 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...

Forms

worse more ill worst most ill

Synonyms

illy

Antonyms

well

Derived

ill-advised ill-assorted ill at ease ill-begotten ill behaved ill-behaved ill-boding ill-bred ill-chosen ill-concealed ill-conceived ill-conditioned ill-considered ill-constructed ill-defined ill-deserved ill-directed ill-disguised ill-disposed ill-equipped ill-fated ill-favoured ill-fed ill-fitting

Noun

  1. Trouble; distress; misfortune; adversity.
    • Music won't solve all the world's ills, but it can make them easier to bear.
    • That makes us rather bear those ills we have / Than fly to others that we know not of. - c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares...
    • Then he commenced to talk, really talk. and inside of two flaps of a herring's fin he had me mesmerized, like Eben Holt's boy at the town hall show. He talked about the ills of humanity, and the glories of health and...
  2. Harm or injury.
    • I wouldn't want you to do me ill.
    • Loue worketh no ill to his neighbour, therefore loue is the fulfilling of the Law. - 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Romans 13:10:
  3. Evil; moral wrongfulness.
    • Strong virtue, like strong nature, struggles still, / Exerts itself, and then throws off the ill. - 1675, John Dryden, Aureng-zebe: A Tragedy. […], London: […] T[homas] N[ewcomb] for Henry Herringman, […], published...
  4. A physical ailment; an illness.
    • I am incapacitated by rheumatism and other ills.
  5. PCP, phencyclidine.

Forms

ills

Derived

for good or ill ill-doer ill-doing louping ill thorter-ill

Verb

  1. To behave aggressively.
    • D.M.C.: You been illin' lately. Run: So, I'm illin'. Am I illin'? Chillin'! You know what I'm sayin'? Chillin'. - 1985, Ralph Farquhar, Krush Groove:

Forms

ills illing illed