betide

Woe betide the philistine who requests a salt shaker or asks that a meticulously prepared dish be spice-bombed.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026

And woe betide any member of the cabinet who upset his mistress.

From BBC ● Feb. 24, 2023

Woe betide the grounds passholder who shows up at the “wrong” entrance; you may be made to walk several blocks, though several on Monday attempted to argue with U.N. police.

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 19, 2022

Woe betide the civic leader in a company town who threatens to buck the company’s interests.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 4, 2022

Etymologically, “invective” is a cavalry charge, and when Cicero hit a gallop, woe betide whoever was in the way.

From "Words Like Loaded Pistols" by Sam Leith

But I have to wonder if, whatever betides, I can stay upbeat in spirit.

From The New Yorker ● Dec. 16, 2019

It fails to mention Ogden Nash's "One rule which woe betides the banker who fails to heed it,/ Which is you must never lend any money to anybody unless they don't need it."

From Time Magazine Archive

Now woe to the warder, poor sinner, betides!

From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 57, No. 352, February 1845 by Various

Ill betides him that has need o' thee," said the boatman, surlily;—"come, jump in.

From Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 2 by John Roby

Fair morning yet betides thee, Son of God,   After a dismal night.

From Paradise Regained by John Milton

But she always took the side of right and virtue against wrong and vice, and woe betided the luckless wight who fell under the ban of her just displeasure.

From Ben Burton Born and Bred at Sea by Archibald Webb

Whusky an' he were man an' may Whate'er betided.

From New Poems by Robert Louis Stevenson

"O Fakir," answered the other, "verily a matter of marvel hath betided me and I know not how to act therein."

From The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 15 by Sir Richard Francis Burton

Whatever betided, there was but one woman in the world for him.

From Woven with the Ship A Novel of 1865 by Cyrus Townsend Brady

Now paupers got sick and got well as Nature pleased: but woe betided the rich in an age when, for one Mr. Malady killed, three fell by Dr. Remedy.

From The Cloister and the Hearth A Tale of the Middle Ages by Charles Reade

For prairie and mountain, windswept and high, For betiding beauty of earth and sky— Say a benediction e'er you pass by.

From The Miracle and Other Poems by Virna Sheard

Then spake the Carline: "I must now look along the ways of sleep and see what is betiding."

From The Sundering Flood by May Morris

And hence their quiet looks confiding,        Hence grateful instincts seated deep,      By whose strong bond, were ill betiding,        They'd risk their own his life to keep.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 06, No. 38, December, 1860 by Various

There was an Ark with scrolls of the Law in the room, betiding a piety and a purse beyond the normal.

From Ghetto Comedies by Israel Zangwill

With no thought of ill betiding, "Thus," we said, "life's years shall be For us twain a river gliding To a calm, eternal sea."

From The Argosy Vol. 51, No. 4, April, 1891 by Charles W. Wood