ill

1 affected with nausea she grew ill from the constant rocking motion of the boat Synonyms nauseous, nauseated, qualmish, queasy (also queazy), queer, queerish, sick, sickish, squeamishRelated Words green, peaked, peaky, sickly; unsettled, upset, woozyNear 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, harmful, injurious, mischievous, nocuous, noxious, pernicious, prejudicial, wickedRelated 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, ruinousNear 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, nonvenomousAntonyms 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, sick, indisposed, peaked, peaky, poorly, punk, run-down, sickened, unhealthy, unsound, unwellRelated 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, hypochondriacalNear 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, thrivingAntonyms 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, bad, inferior, lame, lousy, off, paltry, poor, punk, sour, suboptimal, subpar, substandard, unacceptable, unsatisfactory, wack [slang], wanting, wretched, wrongRelated 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), shamNear 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, satisfyingAntonyms 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, ominous, ill-boding, inauspicious, menacing, minatory, portentous, sinister, threateningRelated 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, malignantNear Antonyms auspicious, benign, bright, encouraging, favorable, golden, heartening, hopeful, promising, propitious, prosperousAntonyms unthreatening

1 in a manner so as to cause loss or suffering in those days society treated debtors very ill, even going so far as to put them in prison Synonyms brutally, hard, harshly, hardly, oppressively, roughly, severely, sternly, stifflyRelated Words callously, cold-bloodedly, hard-heartedly, heartlessly, inhumanely, inhumanly, insensately, insensitively, mercilessly, obdurately, pitilessly, ruthlessly, tyrannically, uncharitably, unfeelingly, unmercifully, unsparingly; abusively, brutishly, savagely, viciously; aggressively, assertively, decidedly, determinedly, firmly, grimly, gruffly, resolutely, strongly, toughlyNear Antonyms benevolently, benignantly, considerately, cordially, graciously, kindly, lovingly, tenderly; charitably, compassionately, humanely, mercifully, softheartedly, sympathetically, tolerantly, understandinglyAntonyms clemently, gently, leniently, lightly, mildly, softly

2 certainly not you can ill afford to miss another day of work Synonyms hardly, no, none, no way, scarcelyRelated Words near, never, nothing, nowhere, nowiseNear Antonyms awful, awfully, enormously, exceedingly (also exceeding), extremely, greatly, highly, hugely, immensely, mightily, mighty, most, quite, terribly, very; assuredly, clearly, hands down, perfectly, plainly, really, truly, unequivocally, unquestionably, utterly; doubtless, more or less, mostly, rather, slightly, somewhatAntonyms absolutely, certainly, completely, definitely, positively, surely

1 an abnormal state that disrupts a plant's or animal's normal bodily functioning chicken pox and the other ills that were once a fixture of childhood Synonyms affection, ail, ailment, bug, complaint, complication, condition, disorder, distemper, distemperature, fever, disease, illness, infirmity, malady, sickness, troubleRelated Words contagion, contagious disease; contagium, infection; attack, bout, fit, spell; debility, decrepitude, feebleness, frailness, lameness, sickliness, unhealthiness, unsoundness, unwellness, weakness; malaise, matter, pip; epidemic, pest, pestilence, plagueNear Antonyms fitness, healthiness, heartiness, robustness, soundness, wholeness, wholesomeness; fettle, shapeAntonyms health, wellness

2 that which is morally unacceptable idealistic people who try to cure all of our society's ills Synonyms bad, evildoing, evil, immorality, iniquity, sin, villainy, wrongRelated Words atrociousness, atrocity, badness, balefulness, darkness, depravedness, devilishness, diabolism, enormity, evilness, heinousness, iniquitousness, satanism, sinfulness, vileness, wickedness; devilry (or deviltry), fiendishness; cancer, canker, decay, rot, squalor; corruption, debauchery, degeneracy, depravity, indecency, malefaction, perversion, pervertedness, scurrility, scurrilousness; abomination, anathema, taboo (also tabu)Near Antonyms decency, goodness, honesty, integrity, probity, rectitude, uprightness; goodness, righteousness, virtuousnessAntonyms good, morality, right, virtue

3 bad luck or an example of this the travelers merrily set off on their journey, scarcely imagining the ills that would befall them Synonyms adversity, misfortune, knock, misadventure, mischance, mishap, tragedyRelated Words calamity, cataclysm, catastrophe, disaster; affliction, hardship, trial, tribulation, woe; distress, misery, suffering, unhappiness; defeat, failure, fizzle, nonsuccess; curse, evil, sorrow, trouble; accident, casualty; blow, body blow, disappointment, letdown, setback; circumstance, destiny, doom, fate, lot, portionNear Antonyms break, chance, fluke, godsend, hit, opportunity, strike, stroke, windfall; accomplishment, achievement, successAntonyms fortune, luck, serendipity