Englishill
adjective
1 Mama was seriously ill | she had begun to feel rather ill:
unwell, sick, not (very) well, ailing, poorly, sickly, peaky, afflicted, indisposed, infirm, liverish;
out of sorts, not oneself, not in good shape, not up to par, under/below par, bad, in a bad way;
bedridden, invalided, on the sick list, valetudinarian;
queasy, nauseous, nauseated;
weak, feeble, frail;
diseased, infected;
British off colour;
informal under the weather, not up to snuff, laid up, funny, peculiar, iffy, crummy, lousy, rough, groggy, green around the gills, at death's door, like death warmed up;
British, informal ropy, grotty, dicky;
Scottish, informal wabbit;
Australian, New Zealand, informal crook;
vulgar slang crappy;
dated queer, seedy.
▷antonyms well, healthy.
2 the ill effects of tobacco smoke:
harmful, damaging, detrimental, deleterious, adverse, injurious, hurtful, destructive, pernicious, inimical, dangerous, ruinous, calamitous, disastrous, malign, malignant;
unhealthy, unwholesome, poisonous, noxious, cancerous;
literary malefic, maleficent, nocuous, baneful.
▷antonyms good, beneficial.
3 the ill feeling between him and the Woodvilles:
hostile, antagonistic, acrimonious, inimical, antipathetic, poisonous;
belligerent, bellicose, aggressive, pugnacious, truculent, contentious;
unfriendly, unkind, unsympathetic, harsh, cruel;
rancorous, resentful, spiteful, malicious, vindictive, vitriolic, malevolent, bitter, mean, nasty;
informal bitchy, catty.
▷antonyms friendly, warm.
4 a bird of ill omen:
unlucky, adverse, unfavourable, unfortunate, unpropitious, inauspicious, unpromising, infelicitous, bad, gloomy;
threatening, menacing, ominous, sinister, disturbing, dire, evil, baleful, forbidding, portentous;
archaic direful;
rare minatory, minacious.
▷antonyms auspicious.
5 the ill manners of her spouse:
rude, discourteous, unmannerly, impolite;
bad, objectionable, unpleasant, disagreeable;
impertinent, insolent, impudent, audacious, uncivil, disrespectful, churlish, crass, ungracious, graceless, boorish;
informal ignorant.
▷antonyms good, polite.
6 the ill management of their finances:
bad, poor, unsatisfactory, incompetent, unacceptable, inadequate, deficient, defective, faulty, unskilful, inexpert, amateurish.
▷antonyms good, competent.
□ ill at ease
he looked ill at ease in morning dress:
awkward, uneasy, uncomfortable, self-conscious, out of place, unnatural, inhibited, gauche, strained;
embarrassed, shy, bashful, blushing, retiring, shrinking;
unsure, uncertain, unsettled, hesitant, faltering;
restless, restive, fidgety, unrelaxed, disquieted, disturbed, discomfited, troubled, worried, anxious, on edge, edgy, nervous, tense, on tenterhooks;
apprehensive, distrustful;
British nervy;
informal fazed, discombobulated, twitchy, on pins and needles, jittery;
North American, informal antsy;
rare unquiet.
▷antonyms at ease, comfortable.
adverb
1 it ill became the king to behave as a vassal:
poorly, badly, imperfectly;
wrongly, unsuccessfully.
▷antonyms well.
2 the look on her face boded ill for anyone who crossed her path:
unfavourably, adversely, badly, unhappily, inauspiciously.
▷antonyms well, auspiciously.
3 he can ill afford the loss of income:
barely, scarcely, hardly, just, only just, just possibly, narrowly;
with difficulty, only with effort;
British, informal at a push.
▷antonyms easily.
4 if things go ill, it's all over:
badly, adversely, unsuccessfully, unfavourably;
unfortunately, unluckily, hard, inauspiciously.
▷antonyms well, according to plan.
5 we are ill prepared for floods:
inadequately, unsatisfactorily, insufficiently, imperfectly, deficiently, defectively, poorly, badly, negligently.
▷antonyms well, satisfactorily.
□ speak ill of
nobody wants to speak ill of the dead:
denigrate, disparage, cast aspersions on, criticize, be critical of, speak badly of, speak of with disfavour, be unkind about, be malicious about, be spiteful towards, blacken the name of, blacken the character of, besmirch, run down, insult, abuse, attack, slight, revile, malign, vilify;
North American slur;
informal bad-mouth, bitch about, do a hatchet job on, pull to pieces, sling mud at, throw mud at, drag (someone's name) through the mud;
British, informal rubbish, slag off, have a go at, have a pop at, slate;
rare asperse, derogate, vilipend, vituperate.
▷antonyms compliment, extol.
noun
1 (ills) the government had failed to cure many of society's ills:
problems, troubles, difficulties, misfortunes, strains, trials, tribulations, trials and tribulations, worries, anxieties, concerns;
pain, suffering, hardship, misery, woe, affliction, distress, disquiet, malaise;
informal headaches, probs, hassles;
archaic travails.
ill Oxford Dictionary of English