ill at ease

adjective

: not feeling easy : uncomfortable

Examples of ill at ease in a Sentence

He seemed ill at ease when we spoke with him. I'm usually ill at ease when addressing a large crowd of people.
Recent Examples on the Web Still, Griffith often felt ill at ease with her position within the music industry. Rachel Syme, The New Yorker, 16 Oct. 2023 Cinderella also becomes more ill at ease in the already-bad bosom of her lousy step-family (Jennifer Simard, Tess Soltau, Amy Hillner Larson) and falls into the arms — and independent mind — of rogue Original Fairy Godmother (Brooke Dillman). A.d. Amorosi, Variety, 22 June 2023 Everyone’s talking about it, or feeling ill at ease for knowing nothing about it. Bill Conerly, Forbes, 5 May 2023 The lawsuits portray Yao as presiding over a museum rife with comments and actions that made women ill at ease. Thomas Floyd, Washington Post, 20 Apr. 2023 But still, many of us are ill at ease. Your Fat Friend, SELF, 16 Apr. 2021 Yet as her boyfriend condescendingly natters on and on and posts his pics on TikTok, Lynn looks vaguely ill at ease, not entirely with the program, and not just because of the persistent pain in her breast. Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times, 31 Mar. 2023 This time, Jon’s the one fidgety and ill at ease. Amanda Whiting, Vulture, 12 Sep. 2021 Peacock, talented, attractive, amatory, and a good friend to the bohemian Shelley circle, married, rather surprisingly, a Welsh parson’s daughter, Jane Gryffydh, who was ill at ease in London and developed life-long mental illness after the death of one of her children. Hermione Lee, The New York Review of Books, 17 Nov. 2020

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'ill at ease.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of ill at ease was in the 14th century

Dictionary Entries Near ill at ease

Cite this Entry

“Ill at ease.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ill%20at%20ease. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

ill at ease

adjective
: feeling uncomfortable
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