Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)

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First published 1937 (DOST Vol. I).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

Ail, v. Also: aill, ayl, ayle; ale, ell. [ME. aile, ayle, eile(n, eȝlen, OE. eᵹlan, to trouble, afflict.]

1. tr. To affect with pain or uneasiness; to trouble; to be the matter or wrong with (a person). Also absol.a1400 Leg. S. xxx. 137 (quhat alis thé?). c1450-2 Howlat 735 (our helpe quhen harme alis); 799 (quhat Dele alis thé?). a1500 Bk. Chess 520 (gret was the wounder quhat suld thaim ale). 1513 Doug. iv. vii. 16 (as ocht hym alyt). 1531 Bell. Boece II. 413 (as na thing alit him). 15.. Clar. iii. 1468 (if hir had aillit ocht). 1560 Rolland Seven S. 202/8 (the man that nathing aillis).

b. Const. with inf., or at (a person).a1400 Leg. S. xxi. 499 (quhat aylis ȝou me to refuse?); xxxiii. 765. a1500 Henr. Robin & M. 72 (quhat alis lufe at me?). a1540 Freiris Berw. 577 (quhat ailit him to be so soir agast). 1570 Arbuthnot Maitl. F. xxix. 5 (quhat alis [Q. ellis] ȝow at me?). 1637 Rutherford Lett. (1671) 118 (what ailed Christ at me).

2. Of persons; To suffer from (some indisposition, etc.).c1420 Wynt. viii. 5243 (he sayd that he wald ayl na-thyng). c1500-c1512 Dunb. Tua Mar. W. 222 (as ȝe sum harme alyt).

b. intr. To be ill or indisposed.1501 Doug. Pal. Hon. i. 51 (now werie, now not aillis). 1560 Rolland Seven S. 328/5 (ȝe sall nocht aill in geir nor in persoun).