ail

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to cause someone pain, illness, or persistent trouble, often used in questions

   The doctor asked what seemed to ail the patient.

2. 2
   verb

   to be ill or in poor health

   Several members of the expedition began to ail after the harsh winter.

Inherited from Middle English eilen, from Old English eglan 'to trouble or afflict.' It comes from a Germanic family of words for distress or hardship; the intransitive sense 'be ill' developed from the older causative sense.

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