See woe betide in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
Download JSON data for woe betide meaning in English (6.0kB)
{
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "woe",
"t": "great sadness or distress; calamity, trouble"
},
"expansion": "woe (“great sadness or distress; calamity, trouble”)",
"name": "m"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "betide",
"t": "to happen to, befall"
},
"expansion": "betide (“to happen to, befall”)",
"name": "m"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "verb"
},
"expansion": "verb",
"name": "glossary"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "subjunctive mood"
},
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"name": "glossary"
}
],
"etymology_text": "From Early Modern English woe (“great sadness or distress; calamity, trouble”) + betide (“to happen to, befall”), formerly used to decry a person’s actions. Grammatically, the verb is in the subjunctive mood.",
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
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"2": "verb"
},
"expansion": "woe betide",
"name": "head"
}
],
"hyphenation": [
"woe"
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
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{
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"Entry maintenance"
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],
"examples": [
{
"text": "Woe betide you if you try that with my sister again!",
"type": "example"
},
{
"ref": "1701, [William Pittis], “The Non-juring Clergyman”, in Chaucer’s Whims: Being Some Select Fables and Tales in Verse, Very Applicable to the Present Times; [...], London: […] D. Edwards, […], →OCLC, page 8",
"text": "Woe betide the Subſcribers, their Children and Wives, / This Action ſhall coſt 'em five hundred Folks Lives.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1865–1866, John Greenleaf Whittier, “The Mantle of St. John de Matha: A Legend of “The Red, White, and Blue,” A.D. 1154–1864”, in The Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier […], London, Glasgow: Collins’ Clear-Type Press, published [1880s?], →OCLC, stanza 9, page 375, column 2",
"text": "\"God save us!\" cried the captain, / \"For naught can man avail; / Oh, woe betide the ship that lacks / Her rudder and her sail![\"]",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1927 November, C[arlo] Collodi, chapter XXV, in Carol Della Chiesa, transl., The Adventures of Pinocchio […], New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, published 1944, →OCLC, page 123",
"text": "A man, remember, whether rich or poor, should do something in this world. No one can find happiness without work. Woe betide the lazy fellow! Laziness is a serious illness and one must cure it immediately; yes, even from early childhood.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1989, Annie Woodhouse, “Conclusion: Transvestism and the Politics of Gender”, in Fantastic Women: Sex, Gender and Transvestism, Basingstoke, Hampshire, London: Macmillan Education, →DOI, page 137",
"text": "However, woebetide the male who takes that downward step into femininity.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2005, E[rnst] H[ans] Gombrich, “A Very Violent Revolution”, in Caroline Mustill, transl., A Little History of the World, New Haven, Conn., London: Yale University Press, page 221",
"text": "And woe betide the peasant who protested! He would be lucky to escape with a few blows across the face from his lord's riding whip, for a noble landowner was also his peasant's judge and could punish him as he pleased.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2019 September 11, Felicity Cloake, “How to make the perfect frying-pan pizza”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-07-13",
"text": "[W]oe betide the person who wanders into a temple of the Neapolitan pie and asks for a ham and pineapple, or indeed the fool who demands a thin and crispy base in old-school Chicago.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Used to warn someone that trouble will occur if that person does something: bad things will happen to."
],
"id": "en-woe_betide-en-verb-N0M3NSrH",
"links": [
[
"humorous",
"humorous"
],
[
"warn",
"warn#English"
],
[
"trouble",
"trouble#Noun"
],
[
"occur",
"occur#English"
],
[
"bad",
"bad"
],
[
"thing",
"thing"
],
[
"happen",
"happen"
]
],
"qualifier": "humorous or literary",
"raw_glosses": [
"(transitive, idiomatic, humorous or literary) Used to warn someone that trouble will occur if that person does something: bad things will happen to."
],
"related": [
{
"word": "a pox on"
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "woebetide"
}
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic",
"transitive"
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "bad things will happen to",
"word": "Isten óvja"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "bad things will happen to",
"word": "jaj annak"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "bad things will happen to",
"word": "jaj neki"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "bad things will happen to",
"tags": [
"imperfective"
],
"word": "biada"
},
{
"code": "vi",
"lang": "Vietnamese",
"sense": "bad things will happen to",
"word": "liệu hồn"
}
],
"wikipedia": [
"Early Modern English"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ˌwəʊ bɪˈtaɪd/",
"tags": [
"Received-Pronunciation"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/ˌwoʊ bəˈtaɪd/",
"tags": [
"General-American"
]
},
{
"audio": "en-us-woe betide.mp3",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/En-us-woe_betide.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/e/ea/En-us-woe_betide.mp3/En-us-woe_betide.mp3.ogg",
"tags": [
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"text": "Audio (GA)"
},
{
"audio": "En-au-woe betide.ogg",
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"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/En-au-woe_betide.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
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"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"word": "woe betide"
}
{
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
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"2": "woe",
"t": "great sadness or distress; calamity, trouble"
},
"expansion": "woe (“great sadness or distress; calamity, trouble”)",
"name": "m"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "betide",
"t": "to happen to, befall"
},
"expansion": "betide (“to happen to, befall”)",
"name": "m"
},
{
"args": {
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"expansion": "verb",
"name": "glossary"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "subjunctive mood"
},
"expansion": "subjunctive mood",
"name": "glossary"
}
],
"etymology_text": "From Early Modern English woe (“great sadness or distress; calamity, trouble”) + betide (“to happen to, befall”), formerly used to decry a person’s actions. Grammatically, the verb is in the subjunctive mood.",
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "verb"
},
"expansion": "woe betide",
"name": "head"
}
],
"hyphenation": [
"woe"
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"related": [
{
"word": "a pox on"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
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"English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
"English humorous terms",
"English idioms",
"English imperatives",
"English lemmas",
"English literary terms",
"English multiword terms",
"English terms with IPA pronunciation",
"English terms with audio links",
"English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
"English terms with quotations",
"English terms with usage examples",
"English transitive verbs",
"English verbs"
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "Woe betide you if you try that with my sister again!",
"type": "example"
},
{
"ref": "1701, [William Pittis], “The Non-juring Clergyman”, in Chaucer’s Whims: Being Some Select Fables and Tales in Verse, Very Applicable to the Present Times; [...], London: […] D. Edwards, […], →OCLC, page 8",
"text": "Woe betide the Subſcribers, their Children and Wives, / This Action ſhall coſt 'em five hundred Folks Lives.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1865–1866, John Greenleaf Whittier, “The Mantle of St. John de Matha: A Legend of “The Red, White, and Blue,” A.D. 1154–1864”, in The Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier […], London, Glasgow: Collins’ Clear-Type Press, published [1880s?], →OCLC, stanza 9, page 375, column 2",
"text": "\"God save us!\" cried the captain, / \"For naught can man avail; / Oh, woe betide the ship that lacks / Her rudder and her sail![\"]",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1927 November, C[arlo] Collodi, chapter XXV, in Carol Della Chiesa, transl., The Adventures of Pinocchio […], New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, published 1944, →OCLC, page 123",
"text": "A man, remember, whether rich or poor, should do something in this world. No one can find happiness without work. Woe betide the lazy fellow! Laziness is a serious illness and one must cure it immediately; yes, even from early childhood.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1989, Annie Woodhouse, “Conclusion: Transvestism and the Politics of Gender”, in Fantastic Women: Sex, Gender and Transvestism, Basingstoke, Hampshire, London: Macmillan Education, →DOI, page 137",
"text": "However, woebetide the male who takes that downward step into femininity.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2005, E[rnst] H[ans] Gombrich, “A Very Violent Revolution”, in Caroline Mustill, transl., A Little History of the World, New Haven, Conn., London: Yale University Press, page 221",
"text": "And woe betide the peasant who protested! He would be lucky to escape with a few blows across the face from his lord's riding whip, for a noble landowner was also his peasant's judge and could punish him as he pleased.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2019 September 11, Felicity Cloake, “How to make the perfect frying-pan pizza”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-07-13",
"text": "[W]oe betide the person who wanders into a temple of the Neapolitan pie and asks for a ham and pineapple, or indeed the fool who demands a thin and crispy base in old-school Chicago.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Used to warn someone that trouble will occur if that person does something: bad things will happen to."
],
"links": [
[
"humorous",
"humorous"
],
[
"warn",
"warn#English"
],
[
"trouble",
"trouble#Noun"
],
[
"occur",
"occur#English"
],
[
"bad",
"bad"
],
[
"thing",
"thing"
],
[
"happen",
"happen"
]
],
"qualifier": "humorous or literary",
"raw_glosses": [
"(transitive, idiomatic, humorous or literary) Used to warn someone that trouble will occur if that person does something: bad things will happen to."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic",
"transitive"
],
"wikipedia": [
"Early Modern English"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ˌwəʊ bɪˈtaɪd/",
"tags": [
"Received-Pronunciation"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/ˌwoʊ bəˈtaɪd/",
"tags": [
"General-American"
]
},
{
"audio": "en-us-woe betide.mp3",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/En-us-woe_betide.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/e/ea/En-us-woe_betide.mp3/En-us-woe_betide.mp3.ogg",
"tags": [
"General-American"
],
"text": "Audio (GA)"
},
{
"audio": "En-au-woe betide.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/1/1b/En-au-woe_betide.ogg/En-au-woe_betide.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/En-au-woe_betide.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "woebetide"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "bad things will happen to",
"word": "Isten óvja"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "bad things will happen to",
"word": "jaj annak"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "bad things will happen to",
"word": "jaj neki"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "bad things will happen to",
"tags": [
"imperfective"
],
"word": "biada"
},
{
"code": "vi",
"lang": "Vietnamese",
"sense": "bad things will happen to",
"word": "liệu hồn"
}
],
"word": "woe betide"
}
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.