woe betide

See also: woebetide

English

WOTD – 27 July 2020

Etymology

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

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌwəʊ bɪˈtaɪd/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌwoʊ bəˈtaɪd/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: woe be‧tide

Verb

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

• woebetide

Translations

bad things will happen to

• Hungarian: Isten óvja, jaj annak, jaj neki
• Polish: biada (pl) impf
• Vietnamese: liệu hồn (vi)

See also

• a pox on

Further reading

• “woe betide (or woe to), phrase”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.