ill

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 *h₁elk- (whence Latin ulcus (“sore”), Ancient Greek ἕλκος (hélkos, “wound, ulcer”), Sanskrit अर्शस् (árśas, “hemorrhoids”) (whence Hindi अर्श (arś)).[1]

• IPA^(key): /ɪl/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ɪl

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

1. (obsolete) Evil; wicked (of people). [13th-19th c.]
   • Francis Atterbury (1663-1732)

     St. Paul chose to magnify his office when ill men conspired to lessen it.

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling. In Six Volumes, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: Printed by A[ndrew] Millar, […], OCLC 928184292:

     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.]
   • 1999, George RR Martin, A Clash of Kings, Bantam 2011, p. 2:

     ‘Go bring her. It is ill to keep a lady waiting.’

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.]

   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. (hip-hop slang) Sublime, with the connotation of being so in a singularly creative way.
   • 1986, Beastie Boys, License to Ill
   • 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.
   • George Swinnock

     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!

• The comparative worse and superlative worst are the standard forms. The forms iller and illest are also used in American English, but are less than a quarter as frequent as "more" and "most" forms. The forms iller, illest are quite common in the slang sense "sublime".

• (suffering from a disease): diseased, poorly (UK), sick, under the weather (informal), unwell
• (having an urge to vomit): disgusted, nauseated, nauseous, sick, sickened
• (bad): bad, mal-
• (in hip-hop slang: sublime): dope
• See also Thesaurus:diseased

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

ill (comparative more ill, superlative most ill)

1. Not well; imperfectly, badly; hardly.
   • 1859, Charles Dickens, The Haunted House

     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, New York, N.Y.: Columbia University Press, →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, Abacus 2010, p. 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?

• illy

• well

ill (plural ills)

1. (often pluralized) Trouble; distress; misfortune; adversity.
   • William Shakespeare

     That makes us rather bear those ills we have / Than fly to others that we know not of.

   • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 4, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:

     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.

   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.
   • John Dryden

     Strong virtue, like strong nature, struggles still, / Exerts itself, and then throws off the ill.

4. A physical ailment; an illness.

   I am incapacitated by rheumatism and other ills.

5. (US, slang) PCP, phencyclidine.

• for good or ill

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

• ill at OneLook Dictionary Search

• Lil, li'l, li'l', lil

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

• il

From Old Norse illr, from Proto-Germanic *ilhilaz, from Proto-Indo-European * h₁elk-.

ill (neuter illt)

1. evil, bad

   Han iles onga

   The evil one's kids

   Ja har illt i fotom

   I have pain in my feet.

   illt om styvra

   lack of money

   Han har illt uti säg

   He is concerned.

   Han har illt ini säg

   He has stomach pains.

   Ji hav illt hóvudä

   I have a headache.