ail

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /eɪl/
• Rhymes: -eɪl
• Homophone: ale

From Middle English eilen, from Old English eġlan, eġlian (“to trouble, afflict”), cognate with Gothic 𐌰𐌲𐌻𐌾𐌰𐌽 (agljan, “to distress”).

this word is never used but with some indefinite term, or the word no thing; as What ails him? ... Thus we never say, a fever ails him.

ail (third-person singular simple present ails, present participle ailing, simple past and past participle ailed)

1. (transitive) 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.

   • Bible, Genesis xxi. 17

     What aileth thee, Hagar?

   • 2011, "Connubial bliss in America", The Economist:

     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 America?

2. (intransitive) To be ill; to suffer; to be troubled.
   • Richardson

     When he ails ever so little […] he is so peevish.

• For quotations of use of this term, see Citations:ail.

ail (plural ails)

1. (obsolete) An ailment; trouble; illness.

From Middle English eyle, eile, from Old English eġle (“hideous, loathsome, hateful, horrid, troublesome, grievous, painful”), from Proto-Germanic *agluz (“cumbersome, tedious, burdensome, tiresome”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂egʰlo-, *h₂egʰ- (“offensive, disgusting, repulsive, hateful”). Cognate with Gothic 𐌰𐌲𐌻𐌿𐍃 (aglus, “hard, difficult”).

ail (comparative ailer or more ail, superlative ailest or most ail)

1. (obsolete) Painful; troublesome.

From Middle English eile, eyle, eiȝle, from Old English eġl (“an ail; awn; beard of barley; mote”), from Proto-Germanic *agilō (“awn”). Cognate with German Achel, Egel, Ägel.

• ile

ail (plural ails)

1. The awn of barley or other types of corn.

• -ial, Ali, IAL, LIA, Lai, ali-, lai

• alj

From Latin allium.

ail

1. garlic

From Old French, from Latin allium.

• IPA^(key): /aj/

• Audio (Paris)

  (file)

• Audio

  (file)

• Homophones: aïe, aille, ailles, aillent, ails

ail m (plural ails or aulx)

1. garlic

• alliacé
• ailler

• “ail” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

• lai, lia

• oil

From Old Irish ail (“boulder, rock”), from Proto-Celtic *ɸales-, from Proto-Indo-European *pelis-, *pels- (“stone”).[1]

• IPA^(key): /alʲ/

ail f (genitive singular aileach, nominative plural aileacha)

1. stone, rock

• Archaic plural: ailche

• ail leachta, ail in úir (“headstone, monument”)

• aill (“cliff, precipice”)
• ailt (“side of a glen”)

• "ail" in Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla, An Gúm, 1977, by Niall Ó Dónaill.
• C. Marstrander, E. G. Quin et al., editors (1913–76), “1 ail”, in Dictionary of the Irish Language: Based Mainly on Old and Middle Irish Materials, Dublin: Royal Irish Academy, ISBN 9780901714299
• “ail” in Foclóir Gaeḋilge agus Béarla, Irish Texts Society, 2nd ed., 1927, by Patrick S. Dinneen.
• Finck, F. N. (1899), Die araner mundart, Marburg: Elwert’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, vol. II, p. 22.

From Old French, from Latin allium.

ail m (uncountable)

1. (Jersey) garlic

• IPA^(key): /alʲ/

·ail

1. third-person singular present indicative conjunct of ailid

From Proto-Brythonic *ėl, from Proto-Celtic *alyos, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂élyos (“other”).

• IPA^(key): /ai̯l/

• Audio

  (file)

ail (feminine singular ail, plural ail, not comparable) (triggers soft mutation)

1. second (ordinal number)

   ail lawr ― second floor

• ail-