Ill'ness, n.

n. [From ill.] 1. The condition of being ill, evil, or bad; badness; unfavorableness. [Obs.] His preference being determined to stay by the illness of the weather. Locke.

2. Disease; indisposition; malady; disorder of health; sickness; as, a short or a severe illness.
3. Wrong moral conduct; wickedness; iniquity; unrighteousness. Shak.

Syn.—ILLNESS, SICKNESS. Originally, sickness was the English term for a continuous disease, as in our version of the Scriptures, &c. Within the present century, there has been a tendency in England to use illness exclusively in this sense, and to confine sickness more especially to a sense of nausea, or “sickness of the stomach.” Hence it is there common to say of a friend, “he has been ill for some weeks;” “he has had a long illness.” This practice is also gaining ground in America to some extent.