Wiktionary

ill

See also: 'ill, ill., I'll, Ill., and ILL

English

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Etymology

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From Middle English ille (“evil; wicked”), from Old Norse illr (adj), illa (adverb), ilt (noun) (whence Icelandic illur, Norwegian ille, Danish ilde), from Proto-Germanic *ilhilaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁elḱ- (whence Latin ulcus (“sore”), Ancient Greek ἕλκος (hélkos, “wound, ulcer”), Sanskrit अर्शस् (árśas, “hemorrhoids”).[1]

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ɪl/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɪl

Adjective

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ill (comparative iller or more ill, superlative illest or most ill)

  1. (obsolete) Evil; wicked (of people). [13th–19th c.]
    • 1709 December 6, Francis Atterbury, A Sermon Preached before the Sons of the Clergy, at their Anniversary-Meeting, in the Church of St. Paul:
      St. Paul chose to magnify his office when ill men conspired to lessen it.
    • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC:
      A man who is conscious of having an ill character, cannot justly be angry with those who neglect and slight him.
  2. (archaic) Morally reprehensible (of behaviour etc.); blameworthy. [from 13th c.]
  3. Indicative of unkind or malevolent intentions; harsh, cruel. [from 14th c.]
    He suffered from ill treatment.
  4. Unpropitious, unkind, faulty, not up to reasonable standard.
    ill manners; ill will
    • 1959, Georgette Heyer, chapter 1, in The Unknown Ajax:
      […] 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.
  5. Unwell in terms of health or physical condition; sick. [from 15th c.]
    Mentally ill people.
    I've been ill with the flu for the past few days.
  6. Having an urge to vomit. [from 20th c.]
    Seeing those pictures made me ill.
  7. (slang, chiefly hip-hop) Sublime, with the connotation of being so in a singularly creative way.
    • 1994, Biggie Smalls (lyrics and music), “The What”:
      Biggie Smalls is the illest / Your style is played out, like Arnold wonderin "Whatchu talkin bout, Willis?"
  8. (slang) Extremely bad (bad enough to make one ill). Generally used indirectly with to be.
    That band was ill.
  9. (dated) Unwise; not a good idea.
    • 1672, George Swinnock, The Incomparableness of God:
      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; […]
    • 1914, Indian Ink, volume 1, page 32:
      They arrested everybody—and it is ill to resist a drunken Tommy with a loaded rifle!
  10. (Appalachia) Bad-tempered.

Usage notes

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  • The comparative iller and superlative illest are not commonly used outside of the slang sense sublime; instead, other terms such as worse and worst are frequently substituted instead.

Synonyms

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Antonyms

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  • (antonym(s) of “suffering from a disease”): fine, hale, healthy, in good health, well
  • (antonym(s) of “bad”): good
  • (antonym(s) of “in hip-hop slang: sublime”): wack

Derived terms

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Terms derived from ill (adjective)

Translations

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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

References

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  1. ^ Michiel de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the Other Italic Languages, s.v. "ulcus" (Leiden: Brill, 2008), 637.

Adverb

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ill (comparative worse or more ill, superlative worst or most)

  1. Not well; imperfectly, badly
    • 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:
      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.
    • 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:
      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.
    • 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:
      In both groups, however, we find copious and intricate speciation so that, often, species limits are narrow and ill defined.
    • 1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela, London: Abacus, published 2010, page 541:
      His inflexibility and blindness ill become a leader, for a leader must temper justice with mercy.
    • 2006, Julia Borossa (translator), Monique Canto-Sperber (quoted author), in Libération, 2002 February 2, quoted in Élisabeth Badinter (quoting author), Dead End Feminism, Polity, →ISBN, page 40:
      Is it because this supposes an undifferentiated violence towards others and oneself that I could ill imagine in a woman?

Synonyms

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Antonyms

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Derived terms

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Terms derived from ill (adverb)

Translations

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Noun

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ill (countable and uncountable, plural ills)

  1. (often pluralized) Trouble; distress; misfortune; adversity.
    Music won't solve all the world's ills, but it can make them easier to bear.
    • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
      That makes us rather bear those ills we have / Than fly to others that we know not of.
    • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter IV, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
      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 Nature and service and land knows what all.
  2. Harm or injury.
    I wouldn't want you to do me ill.
  3. Evil; moral wrongfulness.
  4. A physical ailment; an illness.
    I am incapacitated by rheumatism and other ills.
  5. (US, slang, uncountable) PCP, phencyclidine.

Derived terms

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Translations

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Verb

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ill (third-person singular simple present ills, present participle illing, simple past and past participle illed)

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

References

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  • Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1989.
  • Random House Webster's Unabridged Electronic Dictionary, 1987-1996.

Further reading

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Anagrams

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Norwegian Nynorsk

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Etymology

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From Old Norse illr, from Proto-Germanic *ilhilaz. Along English ill, probably cognate with Irish olc.

Adjective

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ill (masculine and feminine ill, neuter ilt, definite singular and plural ille, comparative illare, superlative indefinite illast, superlative definite illaste)

  1. bad
  2. sore
  3. angry, wroth
  4. (in compounds) strong, very
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References

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Old Norse

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Adjective

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ill

  1. inflection of illr:
    1. strong feminine nominative singular
    2. strong neuter nominative/accusative plural

Scots

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Adjective

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ill (comparative waur, superlative warst)

  1. ill
  2. bad, evil, wicked
  3. harsh, severe
  4. profane
  5. difficult, troublesome
  6. awkward, unskilled

Adverb

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ill (comparative waur, superlative warst)

  1. ill
  2. badly, evilly, wickedly
  3. harshly, severely
  4. profanely
  5. with difficulty
  6. awkwardly, inexpertly

Noun

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ill (plural ills)

  1. ill
  2. ill will, malice

Yola

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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From Middle English ille, from Old Norse illr.

Adjective

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ill

  1. ill
    • 1867, GLOSSARY OF THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY:
      Ill een.
      Ill end.

Etymology 2

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Verb

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ill

  1. Alternative form of woul (“will”)

References

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  • Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 37 & 48
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