ill

ill

adjective

Definition of ILL

1

affected with nausea <she grew ill from the constant rocking motion of the boat>

Synonyms ill, nauseated, qualmish, queasy (also queazy), queer, queerish, sick, sickish, squeamish

Related Words green, peaked, peaky, sickly; unsettled, upset, woozy

Near Antonyms settled; healthy, well

2

causing or capable of causing harm <one of the ill effects of winter weather is the rapid spread of germs as people spend more time together indoors>

Synonyms adverse, bad, baleful, baneful, damaging, dangerous, deleterious, detrimental, evil, hurtful, ill, injurious, mischievous, nocuous, noxious, pernicious, prejudicial, wicked

Related Words hostile, inimical, unfriendly; contagious, deadly, infectious, infective, pestiferous, pestilent, pestilential, poisonous, venomous; insidious, menacing, ominous, sinister, threatening; hazardous, imperiling (or imperilling), jeopardizing, parlous, perilous, risky, unsafe, unsound; nasty, noisome, unhealthful, unhealthy, unwholesome; destructive, fatal, killer, lethal, malignant, ruinous

Near Antonyms advantageous, beneficial, useful; favorable, good, propitious; curative, healthful, healthy, helpful, palliative, remedial, salubrious, salutary, wholesome; secure, sound; benignant; noncorrosive, nondestructive, nonfatal, noninfectious, nonlethal, nonpoisonous, nonpolluting, nontoxic, nonvenomous

Antonyms anodyne, benign, harmless, hurtless, innocent, innocuous, inoffensive, safe

3

temporarily suffering from a disorder of the body <since I'm ill, I guess that I'll just have to miss that dental appointment>

Synonyms ailing, bad, down, ill, indisposed, peaked, peaky, poorly, punk, run-down, sickened, unhealthy, unsound, unwell

Related Words symptomatic; cruddy, lousy, seedy, sickish; nauseated, nauseous, qualmish, queasy (also queazy), squeamish; airsick, carsick, seasick; dizzy, light-headed, shaky, woozy; achy, feverish; diseased, disordered; decrepit, feeble, fragile, frail, infirm, invalid, sickly, weak, weakly; afflicted, troubled; challenged, debilitated, disabled, halt, incapacitated, lame; hypochondriac, hypochondriacal

Near Antonyms able-bodied, conditioned, fit, well-conditioned; cured; better, convalescing, improved, mending, recovering, recuperating, rehabilitated; hardy, hearty, lusty, robust, rugged, stalwart, strong, tough; blooming, bouncing, chipper, flourishing, flush, thriving

Antonyms hale, healthful, healthy, sound, well, whole, wholesome

4

falling short of a standard <such ill behavior will not be tolerated>

Synonyms bastard, bush, bush-league, crummy (also crumby), deficient, dissatisfactory, ill, inferior, lame, lousy, off, paltry, poor, punk, sour, suboptimal, subpar, substandard, unacceptable, unsatisfactory, wack [slang], wanting, wretched, wrong

Related Words abysmal, atrocious, awful, bitchin' [slang], brutal, damnable, deplorable, detestable, disastrous, dreadful, execrable, gnarly [slang], horrendous, horrible, pathetic, stinky, sucky [slang], terrible, unspeakable; defective, faulty, flawed; egregious, flagrant, gross; bum, cheesy, coarse, common, crappy [slang], cut-rate, junky, lesser, low-grade, low-rent, mediocre, miserable, reprehensible, rotten, rubbishy, second-rate, shoddy, sleazy, trashy; abominable, odious, vile; useless, valueless, worthless; inadequate, insufficient, lacking, meager (or meagre), mean, miserly, niggardly, scanty, shabby, short, skimp, skimpy, spare, stingy; miscreant, scurrilous, villainous; counterfeit, fake, phony (also phoney), sham

Near Antonyms classic, classical; A1, bang-up, banner, boss [slang], capital, choice, crackerjack, dandy, divine, excellent, exceptional, fabulous, fine, first-class, first-rate, grand, great, groovy, heavenly, high-test, jim-dandy, keen, marvelous (or marvellous), mean, neat, nifty, noble, par excellence, perfect, premium, prime, sensational, slick, splendid, stellar, sterling, superb, superior, superlative, supernal, swell, terrific, tip-top, top, top-notch, unsurpassed, wonderful; better, exceptional, fancy, high-grade, special, sufficient; average, borderline, fair, mediocre, middling, minimal, so-so, unexceptional; suitable, useful, worthy; gratifying, satisfying

Antonyms acceptable, adequate, all right, decent, fine, OK (or okay), passable, respectable, satisfactory, standard, tolerable

5

being or showing a sign of evil or calamity to come <the abrupt breakdown of negotiations appears to be an ill omen for this ongoing hostage situation>

Synonyms baleful, dire, direful, doomy, foreboding, ill, ill-boding, inauspicious, menacing, minatory, portentous, sinister, threatening

Related Words black, bleak, cheerless, chill, Cimmerian, cloudy, cold, comfortless, dark, darkening, depressing, depressive, desolate, dim, disconsolate, dismal, drear, dreary, dreich [chiefly Scottish], elegiac (also elegiacal), forlorn, funereal, gloomy, glum, godforsaken, gray (also grey), lonely, lonesome, lugubrious, miserable, morbid, morose, murky, plutonian, saturnine, sepulchral, somber (or sombre), sullen, sunless, tenebrific, tenebrous, wretched; discouraging, disheartening, hopeless, unfavorable, unpromising, unpropitious; ill-fated, ill-starred, star-crossed, troubled, unfortunate, unlucky; evil, malign, malignant

Near Antonyms auspicious, benign, bright, encouraging, favorable, golden, heartening, hopeful, promising, propitious, prosperous

Antonyms unthreatening