ail
[eyl]
- to cause pain, uneasiness, or trouble to.
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- to be unwell; feel pain; be ill: He's been ailing for some time.
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Origin of ail
before 950; Middle English ail, eilen, Old English eglan to afflict (cognate with Middle Low German egelen annoy, Gothic -agljan), derivative of egle painful; akin to Gothic agls shameful, Sanskrit aghám evil, pain
Synonyms
See more synonyms for ail on Thesaurus.com1. bother, annoy, distress.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for ailed
Contemporary Examples
It would be impossible to cure all that ailed the GOP in the course of a single calendar year.
Historical Examples
All the knights gathered round him to ask what ailed the Duke.
Cameos from English History, from Rollo to Edward IICharlotte Mary Yonge
Neither did he himself know what ailed him, any better than they did.
The Paradise of ChildrenNathaniel Hawthorne
This gentleman said he never told a fellow what ailed him until he got his whack.
Ned MyersJames Fenimore Cooper
The locksmith's wife knew better perhaps, than he, what ailed her daughter.
Barnaby RudgeCharles Dickens
But as I was a fixin' it on, I see there was something more than mortification that ailed him.
The Universal ReciterVarious
ail
- (tr) to trouble; afflict
- (intr) to feel unwell
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Word Origin
Old English eglan to trouble, from egle troublesome, painful, related to Gothic agls shameful
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for ailed
ail
v.
c.1300, from Old English eglan "to trouble, plague, afflict," from Proto-Germanic *azljaz (cf. Old English egle "hideous, loathsome, troublesome, painful;" Gothic agls "shameful, disgraceful," agliþa "distress, affliction, hardship," us-agljan "to oppress, afflict"), from PIE *agh-lo-, suffixed form of root *agh- "to be depressed, be afraid." Related: Ailed; ailing; ails.
It is remarkable, that this word is never used but with some indefinite term, or the word no thing; as What ails him? ... Thus we never say, a fever ails him. [Johnson]
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper