See also: woebetide

English edit

Etymology edit

From Early Modern English woe (great sadness or distress; calamity, trouble) + betide (to happen to, befall), formerly used to decry a person’s actions. Grammatically, the verb is in the subjunctive mood.

Pronunciation edit

Verb edit

woe betide

  1. (transitive, idiomatic, humorous or literary) Used to warn someone that trouble will occur if that person does something: bad things will happen to.
    Woe betide you if you try that with my sister again!
    • c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies [] (First Folio), London: [] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii], page 44, column 2:
      O gentle Aaron, we are all vndone. / Now helpe, or woe betide thee euermore.
    • 1701, [William Pittis], “The Non-juring Clergyman”, in Chaucer’s Whims: Being Some Select Fables and Tales in Verse, Very Applicable to the Present Times; [...], London: [] D. Edwards, [], →OCLC, page 8:
      Woe betide the Subſcribers, their Children and Wives, / This Action ſhall coſt 'em five hundred Folks Lives.
    • 1865–1866, John Greenleaf Whittier, “The Mantle of St. John de Matha: A Legend of “The Red, White, and Blue,” A.D. 1154–1864”, in The Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier [], London, Glasgow: Collins’ Clear-Type Press, published [1880s?], →OCLC, stanza 9, page 375, column 2:
      "God save us!" cried the captain, / "For naught can man avail; / Oh, woe betide the ship that lacks / Her rudder and her sail!["]
    • 1927 November, C[arlo] Collodi, chapter XXV, in Carol Della Chiesa, transl., The Adventures of Pinocchio [], New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, published 1944, →OCLC, page 123:
      A man, remember, whether rich or poor, should do something in this world. No one can find happiness without work. Woe betide the lazy fellow! Laziness is a serious illness and one must cure it immediately; yes, even from early childhood.
    • 1989, Annie Woodhouse, “Conclusion: Transvestism and the Politics of Gender”, in Fantastic Women: Sex, Gender and Transvestism, Basingstoke, Hampshire, London: Macmillan Education, →DOI, →ISBN, page 137:
      However, woebetide the male who takes that downward step into femininity.
    • 2005, E[rnst] H[ans] Gombrich, “A Very Violent Revolution”, in Caroline Mustill, transl., A Little History of the World, New Haven, Conn., London: Yale University Press, →ISBN, page 221:
      And woe betide the peasant who protested! He would be lucky to escape with a few blows across the face from his lord's riding whip, for a noble landowner was also his peasant's judge and could punish him as he pleased.
    • 2019 September 11, Felicity Cloake, “How to make the perfect frying-pan pizza”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian[1], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 13 July 2020:
      [W]oe betide the person who wanders into a temple of the Neapolitan pie and asks for a ham and pineapple, or indeed the fool who demands a thin and crispy base in old-school Chicago.

Alternative forms edit

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