Synonyms
Examples of ail in a Sentence
Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 15 Nov. 2023
Once inside, the focuses switches from Fernando and his ailing mother to our protagonists, Whitney Siegel (Stone) and her husband, Asher (Fielder), who are sitting across from him and making a great show of listening sympathetically.
—Lili Loofbourow, Washington Post, 10 Nov. 2023
New modeling suggests that by burning less fossil fuels, the ailing snowpack will get a two-for-one benefit: lower temperatures on the snow’s surface and in the surrounding air.
—WIRED, 23 Oct. 2023
Bain’s leaders put him in charge of a new investment firm, Bain Capital, which identified ailing companies to invest in, overhauled them from within, then sold them for profit.
—Michael Luo, The New Yorker, 23 Oct. 2023
On Tuesday, the Olympic gold-winning medalist's daughter McKenna Kelley asked for prayers and donations for her ailing mother on her Instagram story.
—Gina Martinez, CBS News, 10 Oct. 2023
If Linksys’ cognitive system fails to fix what’s ailing it, though, users can flag a problem with its support app.
—Wes Davis, The Verge, 26 Oct. 2023
The ailing entertainment giant needs to transfer that sum by Dec. 1 to Hulu’s 33% minority owner, Comcast, as stipulated contractually under a put option that the NBCUniversal parent exercised on Wednesday.
—Christiaan Hetzner, Fortune, 2 Nov. 2023
Queen Elizabeth was to be a relaxing, wildlife-watching stop in Kenya during what was set to be a long tour while her ailing father, King George VI, rested back home in England.
—Stephanie Petit, Peoplemag, 31 Oct. 2023
Scott Travis, Sun Sentinel, 30 Sep. 2022
Overall, China’s box office continues to ail, with sizable pockets of cinemas across the country still closed as a COVID precaution and consumer activity suppressed by mass testing and a prevailing sense of caution.
—Patrick Brzeski, The Hollywood Reporter, 20 June 2022
Illinois’s fiscal ails have long revolved around its pension system for teachers and state workers.
—Shruti Singh, Bloomberg.com, 18 May 2020
By comparison, the U.S., the coronavirus’s new hotspot, earmarked $2 trillion in March to help businesses, hospitals, and workers counter the economic ails of COVID-19, while the Fed slashed interest rates to nearly zero.
—Eamon Barrett, Fortune, 20 Apr. 2020
This social pressure only worked, though, to the extent that patients could afford to leave normal life behind, and ail in isolation from their communities.
—Annika Neklason, The Atlantic, 21 Mar. 2020
El Paso j ail records show a Patrick Wood Crusius was booked Sunday on state charges of capital murder.
—Los Angeles Times, 4 Aug. 2019
Apple’s smartphone shipments in China fell 20% in the quarter ended December from a year earlier, according to International Data Corp.
Tepid iPhone sales aren't all that ail Apple in China.
—Stella Yifan Xie, WSJ, 21 Feb. 2019
Brian Dennehy is Irina’s ailing elder brother, Sorin, although Dennehy, at seventy-nine, still looks too bearishly robust to ail.
—Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 11 May 2018
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These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'ail.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Verb
Middle English eilen, eilien "to trouble, afflict, affect (with animate or inanimate agent), be troubled, affected," going back to Old English eglan, eglian "to torment, afflict (with animate or inanimate agent)," going back to Germanic *agljan- (whence also Norwegian egle "to bait, goad, heckle," Danish dialect [Jutland] egle "to goad," [Bornholm] ägla "to scold," Gothic agljan, translating Greek bláptein "to harm, hurt"), of uncertain origin
Note: The Germanic etymon has been compared with an assortment of words inside and outside Germanic, most immediately and unarguably with Old English egle "grievous, painful, loathsome, horrible," Gothic agls, attested only as neuter singular agl, translating Greek aischrós "causing shame, disgraceful," and Gothic aglo, translating Greek thlípsis "tribulation." These have been compared further with Sanskrit agháḥ "evil, bad," Avestan aγa-, and Greek áchnymai, achnýnai "to grieve, lament," áchos "pain, distress." All these have been taken as progeny of an Indo-European base *h2egh-, hypothetically "distress, fear," connected further with Old English ege "fear, terror," Gothic agis, Old Norse agi (see awe entry 1). However, the semantic link between the basic Germanic set (exemplified by Old English eglan and egle) and the other words is tenuous.
Noun
Middle English eil "harm, trouble," perhaps in part going back to an Old English noun *ægl, *ægle, n-stem noun cognate with Gothic aglo "tribulation," derivative of a Germanic adjective agla-, whence Old English egle "grievous, painful"; in part noun derivative of Middle English eilen "to trouble, afflict" and eile "harmful, grievous" (continuing Old English egle) — more at ail entry 1
Verb
before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at transitive sense
Noun
13th century, in the meaning defined above
Dictionary Entries Near ail
Cite this Entry
“Ail.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ail. Accessed 8 Dec. 2023.
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Kids Definition
ail
verb
Medical Definition
ail
transitive verb
More from Merriam-Webster on ail
Nglish: Translation of ail for Spanish Speakers
Britannica English: Translation of ail for Arabic Speakers
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