illadjective
uk/ɪl/us/ɪl/ill adjective (NOT WELL)
A2 [ not usually before noun ] not feeling well, or suffering from a disease:
More examples
- He was very ill for a while but he's all right now.
- She felt quite ill from exhaustion.
- Don't talk nonsense! She's far too ill to return to work!
- It was a shock to see him looking so ill.
- Badly cooked shellfish can make you seriously ill.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Not fit & healthy
- bedridden
- critical list
- crook
- danger list
- dehydrated
- emaciated
- far gone
- frailty
- groggy
- infirmity
- insufficiency
- knock
- malaise
- not agree with sb idiom
- off-colour
- organic
- relapse
- shadow
- sick
- starved
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ill adjective (BAD)
C1 [ before noun ] formal or old-fashioned bad:
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Not of good quality
- a miserable, poor, etc. excuse for sth idiom
- apology
- atrocious
- awfully
- badly
- be an apology for sth idiom
- clunky
- come/be a poor second, third, etc. idiom
- downscale
- inadequacy
- inadequate
- motley
- mouldy
- not set the world on fire idiom
- tacky
- unappetizing
- unattractive
- unimpressed
- weak sauce
- worst
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Idiom(s)
illadverb
uk/ɪl/us/ɪl/literary badly:
to say unkind things about someone:
to be a sign of bad things in the future:
If you can ill afford to do something, it will cause problems for you if you do it:
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Not of good quality
- a miserable, poor, etc. excuse for sth idiom
- apology
- atrocious
- awfully
- badly
- be an apology for sth idiom
- clunky
- come/be a poor second, third, etc. idiom
- downscale
- inadequacy
- inadequate
- motley
- mouldy
- not set the world on fire idiom
- tacky
- unappetizing
- unattractive
- unimpressed
- weak sauce
- worst
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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:
illnoun
uk/ɪl/us/ɪl/[ U ] formal or old-fashioned harm:
[ C usually plural ] a problem:
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Damaging and spoiling
- adulterate
- alloy
- at the expense of sb idiom
- at-risk
- bandh
- bang up sb/sth
- foul
- gild the lily idiom
- gloss
- gnaw
- gnaw away at sth
- go west idiom
- goonda
- ravages
- ruin
- scourge
- shatter
- shoot sth up
- sour
- tell on sb
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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics: