woe betide

alternative woebetide

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

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

   5 more examples

   O gentle Aaron, we are all vndone. / Now helpe, or woe betide thee euermore.

   c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii], page 44, column 2

   Woe betide the Subſcribers, their Children and Wives, / This Action ſhall coſt 'em five hundred Folks Lives.

   1701, [William Pittis], “The Non-juring Clergyman”, in Chaucer’s Whims: Being Some Select Fables and Tales in Verse, Very Applicable to the Present Times; [...], London: […] D. Edwards, […], →OCLC, page 8

   "God save us!" cried the captain, / "For naught can man avail; / Oh, woe betide the ship that lacks / Her rudder and her sail!["]

   1865–1866, John Greenleaf Whittier, “The Mantle of St. John de Matha: A Legend of “The Red, White, and Blue,” A.D. 1154–1864”, in The Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier […], London; Glasgow: Collins’ Clear-Type Press, published [1880s?], →OCLC, stanza 9, page 375, column 2

   A man, remember, whether rich or poor, should do something in this world. No one can find happiness without work. Woe betide the lazy fellow! Laziness is a serious illness and one must cure it immediately; yes, even from early childhood.

   1927 November, C[arlo] Collodi, chapter XXV, in Carol Della Chiesa, transl., The Adventures of Pinocchio […], New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, published 1944, →OCLC, page 123

   However, woebetide the male who takes that downward step into femininity.

   1989, Annie Woodhouse, “Conclusion: Transvestism and the Politics of Gender”, in Fantastic Women: Sex, Gender and Transvestism, Basingstoke, Hampshire; London: Macmillan Education, →DOI, →ISBN, page 137