English Explanatory Dictionary

woe betide

English dictionary entry

Meanings

verb
  1. Used to warn someone that trouble will occur if that person does something: bad things will happen to.

Pronunciation

/ˌwəʊ bɪˈtaɪd/ /ˌwoʊ bəˈtaɪd/ en-us-woe betide.mp3 En-au-woe betide.ogg

Word forms

woe betide woebetide

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.

Related words

a pox on
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