See woe betide in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
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"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.",
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"text": "Woe betide you if you try that with my sister again!",
"type": "example"
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"ref": "c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii], page 44, column 2:",
"text": "O gentle Aaron, we are all vndone. / Now helpe, or woe betide thee euermore.",
"type": "quote"
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"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": "quote"
},
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"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": "quote"
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{
"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.",
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"ref": "1989, Annie Woodhouse, “Conclusion: Transvestism and the Politics of Gender”, in Fantastic Women: Sex, Gender and Transvestism, Basingstoke, Hampshire, London: Macmillan Education, →DOI, →ISBN, page 137:",
"text": "However, woebetide the male who takes that downward step into femininity.",
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"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, →ISBN, 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": "quote"
},
{
"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": "quote"
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"Used to warn someone that trouble will occur if that person does something: bad things will happen to."
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"(transitive, idiomatic, humorous or literary) Used to warn someone that trouble will occur if that person does something: bad things will happen to."
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"word": "a pox on"
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"word": "woebetide"
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"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"
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"sense": "bad things will happen to",
"tags": [
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"word": "biada"
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"sense": "bad things will happen to",
"word": "liệu hồn"
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"text": "Woe betide you if you try that with my sister again!",
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},
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"ref": "c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii], page 44, column 2:",
"text": "O gentle Aaron, we are all vndone. / Now helpe, or woe betide thee euermore.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"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": "quote"
},
{
"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": "quote"
},
{
"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": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1989, Annie Woodhouse, “Conclusion: Transvestism and the Politics of Gender”, in Fantastic Women: Sex, Gender and Transvestism, Basingstoke, Hampshire, London: Macmillan Education, →DOI, →ISBN, page 137:",
"text": "However, woebetide the male who takes that downward step into femininity.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"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, →ISBN, 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": "quote"
},
{
"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": "quote"
}
],
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"synonyms": [
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"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"
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{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "bad things will happen to",
"word": "jaj neki"
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"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "bad things will happen to",
"tags": [
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"word": "biada"
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{
"code": "vi",
"lang": "Vietnamese",
"sense": "bad things will happen to",
"word": "liệu hồn"
}
],
"word": "woe betide"
}
Download raw JSONL data for woe betide meaning in English (5.8kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). 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.
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