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Ill vs Nill - What's the difference?

ill | nill |

As nouns the difference between ill and nill

is that ill is (often pluralized) trouble; distress; misfortune; adversity while nill is shining sparks thrown off from melted brass.

As an adjective ill

is (label) evil; wicked (of people).

As an adverb ill

is not well; imperfectly, badly; hardly.

As a verb nill is

to be unwilling; will not (+ infinitive ).

ill

English

Adjective

(en-adj)
  • (label) Evil; wicked (of people).
  • * (Francis Atterbury) (1663-1732)
    • St. Paul chose to magnify his office when ill men conspired to lessen it.
  • (label) Morally reprehensible (of behaviour etc.); blameworthy.
  • * 1999 , (George RR Martin), A Clash of Kings , Bantam 2011, p. 2:
    • ‘Go bring her. It is ill to keep a lady waiting.’
  • Indicative of unkind or malevolent intentions; harsh, cruel.
  • Unpropitious, unkind, faulty, not up to reasonable standard.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1959, author=(Georgette Heyer), title=(The Unknown Ajax), chapter=1
    • , passage=
  • Unwell in terms of health or physical condition; sick.
  • Having an urge to vomit.
  • (label) Sublime, with the connotation of being so in a singularly creative way. [This sense sometimes declines in AAVE as ill', ''comparative'' '''iller''', ''superlative'' ' illest .]
  • * 1994 , Biggie Smalls, The What
    • Biggie Smalls is the illest / Your style is played out, like Arnold wonderin "Whatchu talkin bout, Willis?"
  • (label) Extremely bad (bad enough to make one ill). Generally used indirectly with to be .

    • Usage notes

    * The comparative forms iller and illest are used in American English, but less than one fourth as frequently as the "more" and "most" forms.

    Synonyms

    * (suffering from a disease''): diseased, poorly (''UK ), sick, under the weather (informal), unwell * (having an urge to vomit ): disgusted, nauseated, nauseous, sick, sickened * (bad ): bad, mal- * (in hip-hop slang: sublime ): dope * See also

    Antonyms

    * (suffering from a disease ): fine, hale, healthy, in good health, well * (having an urge to vomit ): * (bad ): good * (in hip-hop slang: sublime ): wack

    Derived terms

    * be ill * fall ill * ill at ease * ill effects * illness * ill wind * lie ill in one's mouth * mentally ill * be taken ill

    References

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • Not well; imperfectly, badly; hardly.
  • *
    • In both groups, however, we find copious and intricate speciation so that, often, species limits are narrow and ill defined.
  • * 1994 , Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom , Abacus 2010, p. 541:
    • His inflexibility and blindness ill become a leader, for a leader must temper justice with mercy.
  • * 2006 , Julia Borossa (translator), Monique Canto-Sperber (quoted author), in (quoting author), ''Dead End Feminism , Polity, ISBN 9780745633800, page 40:
    • Is it because this supposes an undifferentiated violence towards others and oneself that I could ill imagine in a woman?

    Synonyms

    * illy

    Antonyms

    * well

    Derived terms

    * bode ill * ill afford * ill-formed * ill-gotten * ill-thought-out

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (often pluralized) Trouble; distress; misfortune; adversity.
  • * (William Shakespeare)
    • That makes us rather bear those ills we have / Than fly to others that we know not of.
  • * , chapter=4
    • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=Then he commenced to talk, really talk. and inside of two flaps of a herring's fin he had me mesmerized, like Eben Holt's boy at the town hall show. He talked about the ills of humanity, and the glories of health and Nature and service and land knows what all.}}
  • Harm or injury.
  • Evil; moral wrongfulness.
  • * (John Dryden)
    • Strong virtue, like strong nature, struggles still, / Exerts itself, and then throws off the ill .
  • A physical ailment; an illness.
  • Unfavorable remarks or opinions.
  • (US, slang) PCP, phencyclidine.

    • Derived terms

    * for good or ill

    References

    * Oxford English Dictionary , 2nd ed., 1989. * Random House Webster's Unabridged Electronic Dictionary , 1987-1996.

    Statistics

    *

    Anagrams

    * ----

    nill

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) nillen, from (etyl) nillan, nellan, . Cognate with (etyl) nelle.

    Verb

  • To be unwilling; will not (+ infinitive ).
  • *1590 , (Edmund Spenser), (The Faerie Queen) , III.v:
  • *:I here auow thee neuer to forsake. / Ill weares he armes, that nill them vse for Ladies sake.
  • *1600 , (Edward Fairfax), The (Jerusalem Delivered) of (w), XII, lxi:
  • *:What I nill tell you ask (quoth she) in vain, / Nor mov'd by prayer, nor constrain'd by power.
  • To be unwilling.
  • *:
  • *:So the knight of Ireland armed him at all points,, and rode after a great pace, as much as his horse might go; and within a little space on a mountain he had a sight of Balin, and with a loud voice he cried, Abide, knight, for ye shall abide whether ye will or nill , and the shield that is to-fore you shall not help.
  • *:• :
  • *::Soo the knyght of Irelonde armed hym at al poyntes /and rode after a grete paas as moche as his hors myght goo / and within a lytel space on a montayne he had a syghte of Balyn / and with a lowde voys he cryed abyde knyght / for ye shal abyde whether ye will or nyll / and the sheld that is to fore you shalle not helpe
  • *1955 , , (The Lord of the Rings) (Appendices):
  • *:I must indeed abide the Doom of Men, whether I will or I nill .
  • To reject, refuse, negate.
  • *1590 , (Edmund Spenser), (The Faerie Queen) , II.vii:
  • *:Certes (said he) I n’ill thine offred grace, / Ne to be made so happy do intend.
    • Derived terms
    * willy-nilly

    Etymology 2

    Compare Irish and Gaelic (neul) star, light. Compare (nebula).

    Noun

  • Shining sparks thrown off from melted brass.
  • Scales of hot iron from the forge.
    • (Knight)
    English auxiliary verbs