ill - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Clipping of English Illanun.

ill

  1. (international standards) ISO 639-3 language code for Iranun.

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”)).[1]

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.
  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.
    • 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[1]:
      “We desperately needed the nursing support because our ICUs are so inundated with critically ill Covid patients,” Brown said.
  6. Nauseated; 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.
    This is the illest beat I've ever heard.
    • 1994, Biggie Smalls, “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.

in poor health, suffering from a disease

having an urge to vomit

in hip-hop slang: sublime

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

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

  1. Not well; imperfectly, badly
    Such jealousy ill becomes her; she can ill afford another gaffe like that.
    • 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.
    • 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?

not well

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.
  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.

a problem

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'.

ill

  1. alternative form of ele (“aisle”)

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

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

ill

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

ill (comparative waur, superlative warst)

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

ill (comparative waur, superlative warst)

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

ill (plural ills)

  1. ill
  2. ill will, malice

ill m (Tifinagh spelling ⵉⵍⵍ, Arabic spelling ايلّ)

  1. alternative form of ilil

From Middle English ille, from Old Norse illr.

ill

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

ill

  1. alternative form of woul (“will”)