woe betide
woe betide · woes betide · woed betide · woeing betide
Used to warn someone that trouble will occur if that person does something: bad things…Used to warn someone that trouble will occur if that person does something: bad things will happen to.
UK/ˌwəʊ bɪˈtaɪd/US/ˌwoʊ bəˈtaɪd/
Meaning
1 senses(humorous, idiomatic, 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!
Translations
1 languagesOrigin
From Early Modern English woe (“great sadness or distress; calamity, trouble”) + betide (“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.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
woes betide, woeing betide, woed betide, woed betide| Base form | woe betide · to woe betide |
|---|---|
| 3rd person singular | woes betide |
| Present participle | woeing betide |
| Past simple | woed betide |
| Past participle | woed betide |
irregular
Lessons for this word
2 lessons- A1Present simple — Because it is a verb
- B1Used to and would for past habits — Because of how it combines with other verbs