Meanings
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1
adj
characterized by illness, harm, or evil; sickly, harmful, or baleful (rare)
The old sailor blamed illsome writers for filling young readers with ominous tales.
Thesaurus
Etymology
Formed from ill + the adjective-forming suffix -some ("characterized by"). Ill historically covers sickness, harm, misfortune, and moral evil, which accounts for the rare adjective's range from sickly or unhealthy to baleful or disagreeable.