phrase

• Uncomfortable or embarrassed.

  ‘Why did he seem so ill at ease, so uncomfortable with the role he had to play?’

  More example sentences

  • ‘She had become very uncomfortable and ill at ease when visiting her parents and suffered chronic tension.’
  • ‘It made him uncomfortable and ill at ease, and he felt she was trying to keep him there in the pilothouse.’
  • ‘Worse than that, everybody felt ill at ease and unsure how to behave in front of the former enemy.’
  • ‘I just shifted in my seat, feeling very nervous, and ill at ease.’
  • ‘She feels awkward, ill at ease, and even intruded upon.’
  • ‘The world depicted is a fascinating one, and we gaze upon it with rapt attention, even as the disquieting mood of the film keeps us ill at ease.’
  • ‘She sits isolated, straining at the boundaries of the picture, thoroughly ill at ease with her space.’
  • ‘Russians, for historical reasons, can be acutely ill at ease with the idea of expounding uncomfortable truths in a formal setting.’

  Synonyms

  awkward, uneasy, uncomfortable, self-conscious, out of place, unnatural, inhibited, gauche, strained

  View synonyms