ill-starred en · ADJ
Meanings
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Doomed to a bad fate; hapless.
[…] it appears the possibility of the ill-starred Uxbridge-Rickmansworth rail link being built is now bound up with post-war planning. [it was never built]
1945 January and February, H. Langford Lewis, “The Uxbridge & Rickmansworth Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 8:"Do not name it!" answered he, passionately. "God forgive me! I cannot yet bear its name. But for its ill-starred birth, Henriette might now be living. What is there in that unconscious infant to replace its mother?"
1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter IX, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 94:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| more ill-starred | Degree=Cmp | lexicographic | |
| most ill-starred | Degree=Sup | lexicographic |
Synonyms
ill-omened · presageful · divine · augurous · nefastous · foreboding · sinister · ill-boding · boding · disastrous · dire · baleful · bodeful · star-crossed · ill-omened · omenic · prodigious · inauspicate · ominous · brooding · sullen · ill-starred · star-crossed · fatal · inauspicious · ill-fated · portentous · presagious