ill
/ɪl/
ill adjective: evil; wicked (of people).
Adjective
ill (comparative iller or more ill, superlative illest or most ill)
- Evil; wicked (of people).
- 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
- Morally reprehensible (of behaviour etc.); blameworthy.
- ‘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
- Indicative of unkind or malevolent intentions; harsh, cruel.
- He suffered from ill treatment.
- Unpropitious, unkind, faulty, not up to reasonable standard.
- 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
- Unwell in terms of health or physical condition; sick.
- mentally ill people
- I've been ill with the flu for the past few days.
- Nauseated; having an urge to vomit.
- Seeing those pictures made me ill.
- Sublime, with the connotation of being so in a singularly creative way.
- 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?"1994, Biggie Smalls, “The What”
- Synonyms:
- dope
- Extremely bad (bad enough to make one ill). Generally used indirectly with to be.
- That band was ill.
- Unwise; not a good idea.
- 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!1914, Indian Ink, volume 1, page 32
- Bad-tempered.
Adverb
ill (comparative worse or more ill, superlative worst or most ill)
- Not well; imperfectly, badly
- 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
- Synonyms:
- illy
Noun (1)
ill (countable and uncountable, plural ills)
- Trouble; distress; misfortune; adversity.
- 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...
- Harm or injury.
- 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
- Evil; moral wrongfulness.
- 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)
- A physical ailment; an illness.
- I am incapacitated by rheumatism and other ills.
- PCP, phencyclidine.
Verb
ill (third-person singular simple present ills, present participle illing, simple past and past participle illed)
- To behave aggressively.
- D.M.C.: You been illin' lately.
Run: So, I'm illin'. Am I illin'? Chillin'! You know what I'm sayin'? Chillin'.1985, Ralph Farquhar, Krush Groove - Step back, relax, and chill as I thrill / The K is back, I'm not here to ill / Layin' knowledge through the mic / Hype with a beat like this for your delight1989, Rob'n'Raz feat. Leila K, Got to Get
- D.M.C.: You been illin' lately.
Noun (2) capitalized: ILL
ILL (plural ILLs)
- Initialism of interlibrary loan.
Proper noun capitalized: Ill
the Ill
ill meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Odia
ill in Hindi
- in poor health, suffering from a disease
- अस्वस्थ asvasth, बीमार bīmār, रोगी rogī
ill in Urdu
- in poor health, suffering from a disease
- بیمار bīmār, مریض marīz, علیل alīl
ill in Bengali
- in poor health, suffering from a disease
- অসুস্থ ośustho
ill in Odia
- in poor health, suffering from a disease
- ବେମାରିଆ bemāriā
More languagesFewer languages
- ill in Sanskrit
- अस्वस्थ asvastha, रुग्ण rugṇa
- ill in Sinhala
- අසනීප asanīpa
- ill in Pashto
- بيمار bimār, مريض mariz
- ill in Tagalog
- may sakit
- ill in Arabic
- مَرِيض marīḍ
- ill in Malay
- sakit, gering
- ill in Indonesian
- sakit, mual, jijik
- ill in Persian
- بیمار bimâr, مریض mariz
- ill in Thai
- ป่วย bpùai, ไม่สบาย mâi-sà-baai
- ill in Vietnamese
- bệnh, ốm
- ill in Myanmar
- နာ na, နေထိုင်မကောင်း nehtuingma.kaung:
- Sindhi
- بیمار
Examples of ill in a sentence
- Sue made herself ill through overwork.
- “We desperately needed the nursing support because our ICUs are so inundated with critically ill Covid patients,” Brown said.2021 August 14, Christina Maxouris, “‘Bursting at the seams’: Full ICUs are creating a dangerous ER backlog and forcing hospitals to cancel...
- 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...
- 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....
- 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:
Synonyms of ill
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of ill
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | iller |
| comparative | more ill |
| superlative | illest |
| superlative | most ill |
| Adverb | |
| comparative | worse |
| comparative | more ill |
| superlative | worst |
| superlative | most ill |
| Noun | |
| plural | ills |
| plural | ILLs |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | ills |
| present participle | illing |
| past participle | illed |
| past | illed |
Origin of ill
From Middle English ille (“evil; wicked”), from Old Norse íllr (adjective), ílla (adverb), ílt (noun), from Proto-Germanic *ilhilaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁elḱ- (whence Latin ulcus (“sore”), Ancient Greek ἕλκος (hélkos, “wound, ulcer”), Sanskrit अर्शस् (árśas, “hemorrhoids”)). Cognates Cognate with Scots and Yola ill, Danish ilde (“bad”), Faroese, Icelandic illur (“bad, ill, wicked”), Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk ille (“bad”), Swedish illa (“badly; poorly”).
From French Ill.
Words formed from ill
- be taken ill
- bird of ill omen
- do ill
- fall ill
- house of ill fame
- ill-adapted
- illbeing
- ill-being
- illbient
- ill blood
- illderly
- ill-ease
- ill effect
- ill effects
- ill fame
- ill-famed
- illfare
- ill feeling
- ill-fortune
- ill health
- ill humor
- ill humour
- illish
- ill-looking
- ill luck
- ill name
- illness
- ill news spreads apace
- ill off
- ill-omened
- ill-repute
- ill-scented
- illsome
- ill-starred
- illth
- ill-thrift
- ill-treatment
- ill turn
- ill-usage
- ill-use
- ill will
- ill-willed
- ill-willing
- ill wind
- ill-wish
- ill-wisher
- illwisher
- in ill part
- it's an ill bird that fouls its own nest
- it's an ill wind
- it's an ill wind that blows nobody any good
- it's an ill wind that blows no good
- it's an ill wind that blows no one any good
- lie ill in one's mouth
- mentally ill
- moor-ill
- moorill
- nonill
- quarter-ill
- take ill
Phrases with ill
- did ill
- does ill
- done ill
- fell ill
- took ill
- doing ill
- falls ill
- ill names
- ill turns
- taken ill
- takes ill
- fallen ill
40 more phrasesFewer phrases
- ill humors
- ill repute
- taking ill
- falling ill
- ill at ease
- ill behaved
- ill humours
- louping ill
- ill feelings
- is taken ill
- speak ill of
- spoke ill of
- speaks ill of
- spoken ill of
- was taken ill
- been taken ill
- terminally ill
- with ill grace
- being taken ill
- for good or ill
- speaking ill of
- wish someone ill
- birds of ill omen
- woman of ill fame
- women of ill fame
- houses of ill fame
- wished someone ill
- wishes someone ill
- house of ill repute
- wishing someone ill
- woman of ill repute
- women of ill repute
- houses of ill repute
- lay ill in one's mouth
- lain ill in one's mouth
- lies ill in one's mouth
- lying ill in one's mouth
- ill doers are ill deemers
- shame to him who thinks ill of it
- it's an ill wind that blows nobody good
Words that rhyme with ill
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- drill
- Seville
- will
- skill
- still
- frill
- mil
- sill
- swill
- fulfill
- goodwill
- till
- until
- brazil
- downhill
- prill
- quadrille
- shill
- shrill
- thrill
- Chapel Hill
- jill
- McGill
- nill
- squill
- trill
- uphill
- Walton-on-the-Hill
- Baskerville
- dill
- grille
- he'll
- instill
- Ithkuil
- krill
- manille
- nil
- phil
- purple pill
- refill
- remill
- rill
- thill
- twill
- vill
- vril
- 'til
- 'twill
Questions about ill
- What does ill mean?
- Ill means evil; wicked (of people).
- What is ill in Hindi?
- Ill in Hindi is अस्वस्थ (asvasth), बीमार (bīmār), रोगी (rogī). See Ill meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use ill in a sentence?
- Sue made herself ill through overwork.
- What part of speech is ill?
- Ill can be an adjective, an adverb, a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce ill?
- Ill is pronounced /ɪl/.
Words near ill in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: ill (page history and authors); ILL (page history and authors); Ill (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-ill.ogg.
Cite this entry: “ill.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ill. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.