ill (BAD) , can ill afford (to do sth), augur/bode ill

Machinery Order Outlook Bodes Ill For Japan
New York Times
By REUTERS TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese manufacturers forecast a sixth straight quarterly fall in machinery orders in July-September, suggesting they remain ...



The Wall Street Journal tops its world-wide newsbox with the results of a report from the Securities and Exchange Commission's inspector general, which found that two employees traded stock in companies under investigation by the agency, violating its insider trading rules. After coming under fire for a failure to detect Bernie Madoff's gigantic Ponzi scheme, the paper calls it a "potential scandal" that the SEC can ill afford.

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ill (BAD) Show phonetics
adverb
1 FORMAL badly:
Hospital staff, it is claimed, were ill-prepared to deal with the severity of the injuries.
We certainly weren't ill-treated.

2 FORMAL OR OLD-FASHIONED speak ill of sb to say unkind things about someone:
I realize one shouldn't speak ill of the dead.

3 FORMAL OR OLD-FASHIONED augur/bode ill to be a sign of bad things in the future:
This weather bodes ill for the garden party tonight.

4 FORMAL OR OLD-FASHIONED can ill afford (to do sth) If you can ill afford to do something, it will cause problems for you if you do it:
We can ill afford to lose another member of staff.

ill Show phonetics
adjective [before noun] FORMAL OR OLD-FASHIONED
bad:
ill health
Did you experience any ill effects from the treatment?

ill Show phonetics
noun
1 [U] FORMAL OR OLD-FASHIONED harm:
I wish her no ill.

2 [C usually plural] a problem:
There seems to be no cure for Britain's economic/social ills.