Talk:ill

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"My bill is ill."

Can you provide the exact meaning for the same?

Ill as a verb[edit]

In w:You've Come a Long Way, Baby the past participle form "illin" occurs, as a euphemism for "fuckin". __meco 07:01, 13 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

"not" meaning[edit]

It can also mean 'not', as in, "They could ill afford to make another mistake." Wrad 23:17, 13 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I've added "scarcely" as a sense for the adverb. I think that's slightly closer than simply "not". DCDuring TALK 16:04, 8 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]
And thanks for mentioning it. DCDuring TALK 16:04, 8 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Comparative and superlative[edit]

There is a comment in the source: "worse" and "worst" are incorrect—these are forms of "bad", not "ill". However, dictionaries list the two forms as the comparative and the superlative (ill at Dictionary.com). There is an example of worse as a comparative of ill:

  • He is an ill-mannered guest and worse-mannered host. (Hugh Cudlipp, At your peril, 1962)

Google Books also gives examples of worse-tempered as a comparative of ill-tempered: [1] [2]. In a point of view of descriptive linguistics, worse and worse are clearly forms of ill. — TAKASUGI Shinji (talk) 02:00, 29 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Verb in hip-hop?[edit]

No idea what it means, but: "Step back relax and chill as I thrill / The K is back I`m not here to ill / Laying knowledge through the mic..." - Got To Get by Leila K. Equinox 10:10, 24 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Derived terms in Chambers 1908[edit]

Chambers 1908 has some mostly SoP terms (but some aren't?): "Ill-blood, ill-feeling: resentment. adjs. Ill-boding, inauspicious; Ill-bred, badly bred or educated: uncivil. n. Ill-breeding. adjs. Ill-conditioned, in bad condition: churlish; Ill-got = ill-gotten; Ill-haired (Scot.) cross-grained; adj. Ill-wresting, misinterpreting to disadvantage." Equinox 02:23, 25 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Adverb ill (comparative more ill, superlative most ill)[edit]

Any reference to this statement? Microsoft® Encarta® 2009 disagrees with it. See also https://www.wordreference.com/EnglishUsage/worse --Backinstadiums (talk) 17:53, 26 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]

What meaning is used in ill at ease? --Backinstadiums (talk) 17:05, 24 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The adverb. Equinox 17:10, 24 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]
@Equinox: Thanks. Regarding the referred etymology of malaise, it reads "from mal- (“bad, badly”) + aise (“ease”)", are both “bad, badly” adverbs? --Backinstadiums (talk) 18:03, 24 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]
I don't think words have been historically derived by strict grammarians working out what part of speech they are. Equinox 05:48, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

what does ill mean in it's an ill bird that fouls its own nest? --Backinstadiums (talk) 17:27, 9 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

ill- : adverb[edit]

Ill can be used in combination with other adjectives or participles to mean "badly, improperly; inadequately:  ill-considered (= not thought out well in advance; inappropriate); ill-defined (= not well defined or clearly set out).
https://www.wordreference.com/definition/ill

--Backinstadiums (talk) 10:37, 28 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Adjective: more/most ill[edit]

Why are these forms added here specifically for a monosyllabic word? --Backinstadiums (talk) 18:19, 24 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

e.g. "money I could ill afford to lose"[edit]

Does the only existing adverb sense ("Not well; imperfectly, badly") cover this adequately? I am not totally convinced. Equinox 23:39, 11 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]