Definitions for: Ill


[n] an often persistent bodily disorder or disease; a cause for complaining
[adv] (`ill' is often used as a combining form) in a poor or improper or unsatisfactory manner; not well; "he was ill prepared"; "it ill befits a man to betray old friends"; "the car runs badly"; "he performed badly on the exam"; "the team played poorly"; "ill-fitting clothes"; "an ill-conceived plan"
[adv] with difficulty or inconvenience; scarcely or hardly; "we can ill afford to buy a new car just now"
[adv] unfavorably or with disapproval; "tried not to speak ill of the dead"; "thought badly of him for his lack of concern"
[adj] presaging ill-fortune; "ill omens"; "ill predictions"; "my words with inauspicious thunderings shook heaven"- P.B.Shelley;"a dead and ominous silence prevailed"; "a by-election at a time highly unpropitious for the Government"
[adj] distressing; "ill manners"; "of ill repute"
[adj] resulting in suffering or adversity; "ill effects"; "it's an ill wind that blows no good"
[adj] indicating hostility or enmity; "you certainly did me an ill turn"; "ill feelings"; "ill will"
[adj] not in good physical or mental health; "ill from the monotony of his suffering"



Webster (1913) Definition: Ill, a. [The regular comparative and superlative are
wanting, their places being supplied by worseand worst, from
another root.] [OE. ill, ille, Icel. illr; akin to Sw. illa,
adv., Dan. ilde, adv.]
1. Contrary to good, in a physical sense; contrary or opposed
to advantage, happiness, etc.; bad; evil; unfortunate;
disagreeable; unfavorable.

Neither is it ill air only that maketh an ill seat,
but ill ways, ill markets, and ill neighbors.
--Bacon.

There 's some ill planet reigns. --Shak.

2. Contrary to good, in a moral sense; evil; wicked; wrong;
iniquitious; naughtly; bad; improper.

Of his own body he was ill, and gave The clergy ill
example. --Shak.

3. Sick; indisposed; unwell; diseased; disordered; as, ill of
a fever.

I am in health, I breathe, and see thee ill. --Shak.

4. Not according with rule, fitness, or propriety; incorrect;
rude; unpolished; inelegant.

That 's an ill phrase. --Shak.

Ill at ease, uneasy; uncomfortable; anxious. ``I am very
ill at ease.'' --Shak.

Ill blood, enmity; resentment.

Ill breeding, want of good breeding; rudeness.

Ill fame, ill or bad repute; as, a house of ill fame, a
house where lewd persons meet for illicit intercourse.

Ill humor, a disagreeable mood; bad temper.

Ill nature, bad disposition or temperament; sullenness;
esp., a disposition to cause unhappiness to others.

Ill temper, anger; moroseness; crossness.

Ill turn.
(a) An unkind act.
(b) A slight attack of illness. [Colloq. U.S.]

Ill will, unkindness; enmity; malevolence.

Syn: Bad; evil; wrong; wicked; sick; unwell.


Ill, n.
1. Whatever annoys or impairs happiness, or prevents success;
evil of any kind; misfortune; calamity; disease; pain; as,
the ills of humanity.

Who can all sense of others' ills escape Is but a
brute at best in human shape. --Tate.

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

2. Whatever is contrary to good, in a moral sense;
wickedness; depravity; iniquity; wrong; evil.

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


Ill, adv.
In a ill manner; badly; weakly.

How ill this taper burns! --Shak.

Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where
wealth accumulates and men decay. --Goldsmith.

Note: Ill, like above, well, and so, is used before many
participal adjectives, in its usual adverbal sense.
When the two words are used as an epithet preceding the
noun qualified they are commonly hyphened; in other
cases they are written separatively; as, an
ill-educated man; he was ill educated; an ill-formed
plan; the plan, however ill formed, was acceptable. Ao,
also, the following: ill-affected or ill affected,
ill-arranged or ill arranged, ill-assorted or ill
assorted, ill-boding or ill boding, ill-bred or ill
bred, ill-conditioned, ill-conducted, ill-considered,
ill-devised, ill-disposed, ill-doing, ill-fairing,
ill-fated, ill-favored, ill-featured, ill-formed,
ill-gotten, ill-imagined, ill-judged, ill-looking,
ill-mannered, ill-matched, ill-meaning, ill-minded,
ill-natured, ill-omened, ill-proportioned,
ill-provided, ill-required, ill-sorted, ill-starred,
ill-tempered, ill-timed, ill-trained, ill-used, and the
like.

Synonyms: afflicted, aguish, ailing, ailment, airsick, bad, badly, bedfast, bedrid, bedridden, bilious, bronchitic, carsick, complaint, consumptive, convalescent, delirious, diabetic, dizzy, dyspeptic, faint, feverish, feverous, funny, giddy, gouty, green, hallucinating, harmful, hostile, inauspicious, indisposed, infirm, laid low(p), laid up(p), light, lightheaded, light-headed, liverish, livery, menstruating, nauseated, ominous, peaked(p), poorly, poorly(p), queasy, recovering, scrofulous, seasick, sick, sick-abed, sickish, sickly, sneezy, spastic, stricken, swooning, tubercular, tuberculous, under the weather, unhealed, unpropitious, unwell, upset, vertiginous, woozy

Antonyms: good, well, well

See Also: disorder, kinetosis, motion sickness, pip, unfit, unhealthy, upset

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