Phrase guide

woe betide

verb · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˌwəʊ bɪˈtaɪd/
  • General-American: /ˌwoʊ bəˈtaɪd/
  • General-American: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • Australia: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

verb

Meaning 1

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

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: humorous, idiomatic, literary, transitive

Examples

  • Woe betide you if you try that with my sister again!

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

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.

Across languages

Translations

5 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Hungarian: Isten óvja — bad things will happen to
  • Hungarian: jaj annak — bad things will happen to
  • Hungarian: jaj neki — bad things will happen to
  • Polish: biada — bad things will happen to
  • Vietnamese: liệu hồn — bad things will happen to