Can a person be described as being "ill read"?

Solution 1:

Whether "accepted" or not, it is used. While it offers no definition, Wordnik gives over 20 examples of ill-read in print, many of them current. In addition to being used to define someone who is ignorant or uninformed,

Unfortunately, ill-informed and ill-read people are dishing out worn out judgments. — Archive 2007-05-01

ill-read is also used to refer to someone who has not read much about a specific area or topic

I’m sadly ill-read when it comes to short stories and poetry. — Writer Unboxed » Blog Archive » AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Anne Harris

The other sense in which it is used is to describe a piece of writing as being either misread or not read by as wide an audience as it might deserve:

His only accomplishment, as far as I can see is that he was a celebrity, in the meaning remarked by the late Dan Boorstin, in his ground-breaking, and ill-read book of media criticism, The Image (1961), for which there there is but one criterion: Tim Russert was known mainly for being known. — Tim Russert Has Passed Away

The various meanings of the term are usually obvious from their context.

Solution 2:

Yes, it's fine. In this context, ill conforms to MW's third definition:

not suited to circumstances or not to one's advantage

I would hyphenate it as a phrasal adjective, like well-read -- e.g., ill-read.

Solution 3:

I think this is more a concern for style than usage. Plenty of English idioms don't have mirror complements, and that's ok. We can still identify and accept them. Perhaps there is a metalogic at work here that says for every phrase we coin, it's reasonable to expect there is a reverse for every obverse side. But there is a price.

As a student I remember crafting these complements several times in my compositions. I can't recall one at the moment, but my best teachers always circled them and added a red "NO" somewhere in the margin. As a composition instructor myself, I was more long-winded: "I understand what you meant. In fact, now I'm thinking about it. What is the topic of your paper again?" My best students did not repeat the practice. And I never thought my teachers were short-winded; they were terse.

English idioms make it difficult to perceive a driving logic behind the language. Which is the lesson; there isn't one. They are sometimes formed by sediment, sometimes by metamorphosis, and sometimes from freshly molten stuff. Sooner or later, you have to take a lot of its features at face value alone.

Solution 4:

As attribute, ill can have three meanings:

• poor in quality
• harmful
• (especially of fortune) not favorable

About the usage of the hyphen, the NOAD has the following note, which apply for both ill and well:

The adverb well is often used in combination with past participles to form compound adjectives: well-adjusted, well-intentioned, well-known, and so on. As far as hyphenation is concerned, there are three general rules:
1. if the compound adjective is placed before the noun (i.e., in the attributive position), it should be hyphenated (a well-intentioned remark);
2. if the compound adjective is preceded by an adverb (much, very, surprisingly, etc.), the compound adjective is open (a thoroughly well prepared student);
3. if the compound adjective is placed after the noun or verb (i.e., in the predicate position), it may, but need not, be hyphenated (her remark was well-intentioned or her remark was well intentioned).
Likewise, other, similar compounds with better, best, ill, little, lesser, least, etc., are hyphenated before the noun (a little-known author), often open after a noun or verb (the author was little known), and open if modified by an adverb (a very little known author).