Showing results for "ailing"

• present participle of ail.

ailing

American  

[ey-ling] / ˈeɪ lɪŋ /

adjective

1. sickly; unwell.

2. unsound or troubled.

   a financially ailing corporation.

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ailing British  

/ ˈeɪlɪŋ /

adjective

1. unwell or unsuccessful

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Etymology

Origin of ailing

First recorded in 1590–1600; ail + -ing ²

Explanation

Someone who's ailing is sick. You might visit your ailing grandmother in the hospital. You can use the adjective ailing to describe someone who's very ill, or use it figuratively, to talk about "our ailing economy," or "the ailing school system." The next time you call in sick to work, you might say, "I can't come in today — I'm afraid I'm ailing." Ailing comes from the verb ail, "trouble or afflict," from the Old English eglan, "to trouble, plague, or pain."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

ailing

Healthcare provider Kaiser Permanente said it will give ailing Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital a $25-million grant to help expand its overcrowded emergency department.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026

Peak Energy, in turn, aims to assemble them into systems that can be attached to the ailing U.S. power grid.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026

The broad overperformance, however, came as Ford notched another loss and revenue drop for its ailing EV business, and leaned on its storied pickup trucks to limit a year-over-year sales drop.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 28, 2026

Similarly, Likho, a one-eyed Russian Blue, also was ailing when Kobilha took him in at 8 years old, but she wanted him anyhow.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2026

Then Breashears offered his expedition’s supply of oxygen—fifty canisters that had been laboriously carried to 26,000 feet—to the ailing climbers and would-be rescuers on the Col.

From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer

Related Words

• diseased
• feeble
• ill
• sickly
• weak