ill

Etymology

From Middle English ille (“evil; wicked”), from Old Norse illr (adj), 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”) (whence Hindi अर्श (arś)).

adj

1. (obsolete) Evil; wicked (of people).
   St. Paul chose to magnify his office when ill men conspired to lessen it. December 6 1709, Francis Atterbury, A Sermon Preached before the Sons of the Clergy, at their Anniversary-Meeting, in the Church of St. Paul
2. (archaic) 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
3. Indicative of unkind or malevolent intentions; harsh, cruel.
   He suffered from ill treatment.
4. 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
5. Unwell in terms of health or physical condition; sick.
   Mentally ill people.
   I've been ill with the flu for the past few days.
6. Having an urge to vomit.
   Seeing those pictures made me ill.
7. (hip-hop slang) Sublime, with the connotation of being so in a singularly creative way.
   Biggie Smalls is the illest / Your style is played out, like Arnold wonderin "Whatchu talkin bout, Willis?" 1994, Biggie Smalls (lyrics and music), “The What”
8. (slang) Extremely bad (bad enough to make one ill). Generally used indirectly with to be.
   That band was ill.
9. (dated) 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

adv

1. Not well; imperfectly, badly
   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

noun

1. (often pluralized) Trouble; distress; misfortune; adversity.
   Music won't solve all the world's ills, but it can make them easier to bear.
   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. Lincoln, chapter 4, in Mr. Pratt's Patients
2. Harm or injury.
   I wouldn't want you to do me ill.
3. Evil; moral wrongfulness.
4. A physical ailment; an illness.
   I am incapacitated by rheumatism and other ills.
5. (US, slang, uncountable) PCP, phencyclidine.

verb

1. (intransitive, slang) 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