illy
illy adverb: badly; poorly.
Adverb
illy (comparative more illy, superlative most illy)
- Badly; poorly.
- The domestic presence of Lucy had begun to produce a remarkable effect upon Pierre. Sometimes, to the covertly watchful eye of Isabel, he would seem to look upon Lucy with an expression illy befitting their singular and so-supposed merely cousinly relation; […]1852, Herman Melville, Pierre; or The Ambiguities
- Nor was this less ominous than the rattle of musketry, for it suggested but a single solution to the little band of rescuers—that the illy garrisoned village had already succumbed to the onslaught of a superior force.1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 132
Adjective
illy (comparative more illy, superlative most illy)
- cool, fresh
- A few more duets with Ghostface would have been illy, and even ONE track with RZA would have been the icing on a top notch cake. Regardless though to any who thought that Raekwon the Chef couldn't cook it up any more, "The Lex Diamond Story" proves that with or without RZA, he's still got it locked.2023 December 16, Steve 'Flash' Juon, Raekwon :: The Lex Diamond Story :: Universal Records
Synonyms of illy
Forms of illy
| Adverb | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more illy |
| superlative | most illy |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more illy |
| superlative | most illy |
Origin of illy
From ill + -ly.
Questions about illy
- What does illy mean?
- Illy means badly; poorly.
- What part of speech is illy?
- Illy can be an adverb or an adjective.
Words near illy in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: illy (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.
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Cite this entry: “illy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/illy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.