woe betide
- idiom
- Archaic
:
ay de
- And, you know, woe betide anybody who dares to say, well, I don't agree.
And, you know, woe betide anybody who dares to say, well, I don't agree.
- And, you know, woe betide anybody who dares to say, well, I don't agree.
Examples
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And if you're really, really gentle, you can you can track along it, but woe betide you if you start to make this line off.
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The teacher warned that woe betide any student who arrived late for class.
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Woe betide anyone who breaks the rules during the test; they will face immediate consequences.
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Woe betide those who ignore the warnings; they will soon regret their decision.
Synonyms
1
9.6
A warning that someone may get into trouble if they do something
Antonyms
How Severe
Surface Forms
Morphology
woe + betide
If a learner knows 'woe' (misfortune) and 'betide' (to happen to), the phrase is compositionally clear: it literally expresses that misfortune will happen to someone and functions as a warning. Although the phrase is archaic/formal in register, its meaning is directly derivable from the constituents, so a learner who knows both words would understand it.
Etymology
The phrase woe betide may come from an old way of speaking where people used a short curse: woe meant 'great trouble or sorrow' and betide meant 'happen to'. So, the phrase literally asks that trouble should happen to someone, which is why today it is used to warn that 'trouble will come' to anyone who does something wrong.