ailverb
uk/eɪl/us/eɪl/ail verb (CAUSE DIFFICULTY)
[ T ] formal to cause difficulty and problems for someone or something:
The government seems to have no understanding of what ails the country.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Causing difficulties for oneself or others
- be a tall order idiom
- be asking for trouble idiom
- be your own worst enemy idiom
- bugger
- bugger sb about
- dig
- lay
- lay yourself open to attack, criticism, ridicule, etc. idiom
- like pulling teeth idiom
- make a rod for your own back idiom
- make heavy weather of sth idiom
- overburden
- pose
- shoot
- spell trouble idiom
- store
- store sth up
- store up trouble/problems idiom
- subject sb/sth to sth
- wrong-foot
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ail verb (BE/MAKE ILL)
[ I or T ] old-fashioned to be ill, or to cause to be ill:
She had been ailing for years before she died.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Being & falling ill
- be green around the gills idiom
- be laid up idiom
- be out of sorts idiom
- break
- bring
- burned out
- burnt out
- catch your death of cold idiom
- declension
- food
- KO
- pick sth up
- pneumonia
- prone
- relapse
- shiver
- shivery
- sicken
- strike
- upset
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