woe betide

Related to woe betide: out of whack

woe betide (one)

Unpleasant things will happen to one. And woe betide anyone who tries to ruin my plans!
See also: betide, woe
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

woe betide (someone)

1. Used to express the wish for someone to experience misfortune.
2. Used as a warning or allusion to negative consequences: "Even though my dad was no farmer, he was a crack shot and a very good hunter&.... woe betide the unwary moose that wandered down from Canada" (Howard Frank Mosher).
See also: betide, woe
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition.
See also:
  • betide
  • woe betide (one)
  • woe betide somebody
  • on one's
  • on someone's
  • out of one's
  • (I've) got to go
  • save someone's skin
  • woe is you
  • (Have you) been OK?
References in periodicals archive
Woe betide any flight crew who mistake the new premier, kittenheels Theresa, for a hostess.
It might be Christmas Jumper Day at the infants' but Party Day (bring some cakes) at the juniors',' and woe betide you if you forget your PS1 "voluntary contribution" for Christmas Party Jumper Cake Day, or which child to give it to.
The reality is that the loyalty of professional politicians is to their party, encouraged by the whips, and woe betide anyone who fails to toe the party line.
Woe betide wealth-creators in Wales if Wales had control over income tax.
In between, we have two new tour t-shirts for the morning rounds, though shirts from previous tours may be worn for the afternoon's 18 holes, but woe betide anyone who fails to don the appropriate kit - as some newcomers have been foolish enough to do in the past.
6THE 6 THE LEAGUE OF GENTLEMEN (1999-02) Tubbs and Edward ran their 'local shop for local people', and woe betide any outsider who wandered in looking to touch the 'precious things'.
Celebrity chef James Martin FROM Yorkshire puddings to Cornish pasties, we Brits are proud of our regional cuisine - and woe betide anyone who gets one of our local delicacies wrong (to hear some people talk, you'd think crimping a pasty on top rather than the side would lead to one being exiled from Cornwall).
Nobody calls Neville Southall anything meaner than 'big-boned' at the moment but woe betide him if a flash Portuguese youngster also named Neville Southall bursts on to the scene.
We moaned and groaned but woe betide us if we didn't do our share.
It's his job to pass it on to the next generation - he's merely here for his three score and 10 years and woe betide him if the Chesterfield goes missing on his watch."
They equate socialism with goodness and woe betide anyone who disagrees with them.
Woe betide us if ever someone decides that trees have private parts--they'll all be decked out in doilies overnight."
If anyone can find that person Fischer can, but until he does his work and his battle with the bureaucrats will continue--and woe betide anyone who tries to stop him!
Their obsession became official policy on September 20, when President Bush unveiled a report called "The National Security Strategy of the United States." It says, "We will not hesitate to act alone, if necessary, to exercise our right of self-defense by acting preemptively." This doctrine says the United States will defend "our interests at home and abroad by identifying and destroying the threat before it reaches our borders." And woe betide any nation that tries to compete with the United States militarily.
Woe betide the chef who set before him what His Highness did not deem a dainty dish.