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Glite Dictionary
woe to

woe to

1 9.6
A warning that someone may get into trouble if they do something
  • idiom
  • Archaic
translation icon : ay de

Examples

  • Woe to the shepherd who abandons his sheep.

    The Omen (1976)

  • Woe to anyone who thinks they can break the rules without consequence.

  • Woe to those who ignore the warnings; trouble is sure to follow.

  • Woe to you if you choose to ignore the advice given by experienced teachers.

Synonyms

woe betide
vswoe to
  • Archaic
9.9

Bad things will happen to anyone who does that

warns more generally about misfortune or trouble from that action

Antonyms

blessing
269 1.4

A good thing or situation that brings happiness

good fortune
66 2.5

A lucky event or success that happens by chance

How Severe

woe to
  • Archaic
1 9.6
to beware
136 4.1
to take care
168 1.8

Surface Forms

woe to main

Morphology

woe + to

The sense 'trouble or misfortune will befall someone' is directly inferable from 'woe' (suffering, sorrow) combined with the prepositional marker 'to' indicating the target: 'woe to X' effectively means 'suffering to X'. Although somewhat formal or archaic in style, the composition is literal and cross-linguistically paralleled, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents would normally grasp the warning sense.

Etymology

Woe to comes from old religious warnings where a speaker would say woe (a word for 'great trouble') and point to a person or group. That's why woe to is used as a strong warning that someone will face trouble or punishment.