ill

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

1709 December 6, Francis Atterbury, A Sermon Preached before the Sons of the Clergy, at their Anniversary-Meeting, in the Church of St. Paul:

A man who is conscious of having an ill character, cannot justly be angry with those who neglect and slight him.

1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC:

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

1999, George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings, Bantam, published 2011, page 2:

(archaic) Morally reprehensible (of behaviour etc.); blameworthy.

He suffered from ill treatment.

Indicative of unkind or malevolent intentions; harsh, cruel.

ill manners; ill will

[…]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.

1959, Georgette Heyer, chapter 1, in The Unknown Ajax:

Unpropitious, unkind, faulty, not up to reasonable standard.

mentally ill people

I've been ill with the flu for the past few days.

Unwell in terms of health or physical condition; sick.

Seeing those pictures made me ill.

This is the illest beat I've ever heard.

Biggie Smalls is the illest / Your style is played out, like Arnold wonderin "Whatchu talkin bout, Willis?"

(slang, chiefly hip-hop) Sublime, with the connotation of being so in a singularly creative way.

That band was ill.

(slang) Extremely bad (bad enough to make one ill). Generally used indirectly with to be.

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; […]

1672, George Swinnock, The Incomparableness of God:

They arrested everybody—and it is ill to resist a drunken Tommy with a loaded rifle!

en-adj

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

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

fine

antonym(s) of “suffering from a disease”

it's an ill bird that fouls its own nest

it's an ill wind that blows nobody any good

it's an ill wind that blows no one any good

saket

in poor health, suffering from a disease

From Middle English ille (“evil; wicked”), from Old Norse illr (adjective), 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”).


ill

Such jealousy ill becomes her; she can ill afford another gaffe like that.

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.

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:

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.

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:

In both groups, however, we find copious and intricate speciation so that, often, species limits are narrow and ill defined.

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:

His inflexibility and blindness ill become a leader, for a leader must temper justice with mercy.

1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela, London: Abacus, published 2010, page 541:

Is it because this supposes an undifferentiated violence towards others and oneself that I could ill imagine in a woman?

2006, Julia Borossa (translator), Monique Canto-Sperber (quoted author), in Libération, 2002 February 2, quoted in Élisabeth Badinter (quoting author), Dead End Feminism, Polity, page 40

en-adv

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

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


ill

Music won't solve all the world's ills, but it can make them easier to bear.

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

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]:

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.

1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter IV, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

(often pluralized) Trouble; distress; misfortune; adversity.

I wouldn't want you to do me ill.

Loue worketh no ill to his neighbour, therefore loue is the fulfilling of the Law.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Romans 13:10:

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

1675, John Dryden, Aureng-zebe: A Tragedy. […], London: […] T[homas] N[ewcomb] for Henry Herringman, […], published 1676, →OCLC, (please specify the page number):

I am incapacitated by rheumatism and other ills.

(US, slang, uncountable) PCP, phencyclidine.

en-noun

ill (countable and uncountable, plural ills)


ill

D.M.C.: You been illin' lately.
Run: So, I'm illin'. Am I illin'? Chillin'! You know what I'm sayin'? Chillin'.

(intransitive, slang, dated) To behave aggressively.

en-verb

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

ills (present singular third-person)
illing (participle present)
illed (participle past)
illed (past)