betide

Woe betide anyone who didn't meet Amorim's standards.

From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2025

But woe betide anyone who tried to give her out-of-season berries.

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 21, 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

“Woe betide those who clapped him as a saint.”

From Washington Post ● Aug. 20, 2019

Nay, nay, whatever may now betide in war, my line too is ending, even the House of the Stewards has failed.

From "The Return of the King" by J.R.R. Tolkien

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

Befall and betide are transitive; happen is intransitive; something befalls or betides a person or happens to him.

From English Synonyms and Antonyms With Notes on the Correct Use of Prepositions by Fernald, James Champlin

Piecemeal I will rend the crown, The ivy-crown which, dear, I guard for thee, Inwov'n with scented parsley and with flowers: Oh I am desperate—what betides me, what?—

From Theocritus, translated into English Verse by Theocritus

Whate'er betides, all beauty still is mine,     I drink—as did the old gods—of its wine!

From The Ballad of the Quest by Sheard, Virna

By Allah, O my lord, excuse me; I have told thee the truth of my case and the accident which betided me.

From Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 2 by Mabie, Hamilton Wright

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 Reade, Charles

"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 Burton, Richard Francis, Sir

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 Webb, Archibald

They were not apprized of any inconvenience or danger that betided her.

From Ormond, Volume III (of 3) or, The Secret Witness by Brown, Charles Brockden

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

From The Sundering Flood by Morris, May

O I know the Hand that is guiding me Through the shadow to the light; And I know that all betiding me Is meted out aright.

From Poems with Power to Strengthen the Soul by Mudge, James

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 Sheard, Virna

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 Zangwill, Israel

Betide, betided or betid, betiding, betided or betid.

From The Grammar of English Grammars by Brown, Goold