adv. (American).—Vicious; unpleasant; ill-tempered. Cf. RELIGIOUS. Also ILL for = having a vicious propensity for anything (JAMIESON). Cf., ‘Neither is it ill air only that makes an ill seat, but ill ways, ill markets, and ill neighbours’ (BACON).
1887. Transactions of the American Philological Association, xvii. 39. I heard a man in the Smoky Mountains say, ‘Some rattlesnakes are ILLER’n others;’ and another that ‘black rattlesnakes are the ILLEST.’
1887. Scribner’s Magazine. In course the baby mus’ come in the thick er it! An’t make me mad, seein’ him so ILL with her.
TO DO ILL TO, verb. phr. (Scots’ colloquial).—To have sexual commerce with: generally in negative, and of women alone.
