Ail
[eɪl] or [el]
Definition
(v. t.) To affect with pain or uneasiness, either physical or mental; to trouble; to be the matter with; -- used to express some uneasiness or affection, whose cause is unknown; as, what ails the man? I know not what ails him.
(v. i.) To be affected with pain or uneasiness of any sort; to be ill or indisposed or in trouble.
(n.) Indisposition or morbid affection.
Typed by Claus
Synonyms and Synonymous
v. a. Pain, trouble, afflict, be the matter with.
v. n. Suffer, be in pain, feel pain, be ill.
n. Disease, AILMENT.
Checker: Sandra
Examples
- I don't see as anything ails the child, she would say; she runs about, and plays. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
- What ails the Old Lady now? Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- What ails you? Arthur Conan Doyle. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
- Why, Eliza child, what ails you? Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
- And what ails you, then? Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- Eliza, girl, what ails you today? Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
- I believe, sir, if she were dying, she would smile, and aver, 'Nothing ails me. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- What ailed you that you could not agree? Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- He thought so long as a woman was silent nothing ailed her, and she wanted nothing. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- She was serious, and in her wish was implied an important admission; after that she could no longer affirm that _nothing_ ailed her. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- What ailed Don Quixote was that he and his contemporaries wanted different things; the only ideals that count are those which express the possible development of an existing force. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- And what ailed the chestnut tree? Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- I replied, that nothing ailed me save anxiety of mind, which I hoped soon to alleviate. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- This was Susan herself, occupied in preparing a posset for her little boy, who, often ailing, was now seriously unwell. Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
- Mrs. Boucher was very ill; really ill--not merely ailing. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. North and South.
- George accepted the invitation, although his wife was a little ailing. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- Well, after years of ailing, the doctor has at last given her up, and she is dying slowly day by day. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
- How are you ailing? Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- She has become rather more interesting by being ailing of late, which has brought a new visitor to the Hall, in the person of a young doctor. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- Weak and ailing people were heartened and healed by his presence. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
Checked by Edmond