Allen's Dictionary of English Phrases by Robert Allen

Author:Robert Allen
Language: ru
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
ISBN: 9780141917689
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2009-06-12T20:00:00+00:00

if

if anything

used to suggest tentatively or tactfully that something is or could be rather the case. 19th cent.

Harriet Beecher Stowe Uncle Tom’s Cabin 1852

I don’t think my feelings about slavery are peculiar. I find many men who, in their hearts, think of it just as I do. The land groans under it; and, bad as it is for the slave, it is worse, if anything, for the master.

ill

ill at ease

feeling awkward or uneasy: also recorded in the now obsolete form evil at ease. The phrase is found in Middle English in the 14th cent. northern poem known as the Cursor Mundi.

George Peele The Love of King David and Fair Bathsabe 1599

[Ionadab] Thus it shall be, lie downe vpon thy bed, | Faining thee feuer sicke, and ill at ease, | And when the king shall come to visit thee, | Desire thy sister Thamar may be sent | To dresse some deinties for thy maladie.

Shakespeare Othello III.iii.30 (1604)

[Desdemona] Why, stay, and hear me speak. [Cassio] Madam, not now: I am very ill at ease, | Unfit for mine own purposes.

Adelaide Ann Procter A Lost Chord 1858

Seated one day at the organ, | I was weary and ill at ease, | And my fingers wandered idly | Over the noisy keys.

take it ill

to resent or take offence at something. 16th cent.

Shakespeare Timon of Athens v.i.88 (1609)

[Timon] I must needs say you have a little fault… [Poet and Painter] Beseech your honour | To make it known to us. [Timon] You’ll take it ill.

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