under the weather

English[edit]

WOTD – 18 May 2017

From under the weather bow (“affected by bad weather; seasick”); weather bow is a nautical term referring to the side of a ship exposed to bad weather.^[1]

under the weather (not comparable)

(idiomatic) ill or gloomy, especially from a cold or flu.
- 1907 May, Andy Adams, “The School of Experience”, in Reed Anthony, Cowman: An Autobiography, Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.: Houghton Mifflin Company; The Riverside Press Cambridge, →OCLC, page 151:
  […] I met a stranger, a quiet little man, who also had been under the weather from malaria.
(idiomatic) Somewhat intoxicated or suffering from a hangover.
- 1907, Louis Joseph Vance, The Brass Bowl, New York, N.Y.: A. L. Burt Company, publishers, →OCLC, pages 128–129:
  I was a bit under the weather last night: out with a party of friends, you know. Dare say we all had a bit more than we could carry.
(idiomatic, obsolete) Experiencing adversity.
- 1873, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens]; Charles Dudley Warner, chapter XIX, in The Gilded Age: A Tale of To-day, Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company; Chicago, Ill.: F. G. Gilman, →OCLC; republished Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company, 1874, →OCLC, page 178:
  The Hawkinses are under the weather now, but their Tennessee property is millions when it comes into market.

somewhat ill

^ Bill Beavis, Richard G. McCloskey (1983) Salty Dog Talk: The Nautical Origins of Everyday Expressions, London, New York, N.Y.: Granada, →ISBN.