/ bæd; NAmE / adjective , noun , adverb
■ adjective
( worse / wɜːs; NAmE wɜːrs/ worst / wɜːst; NAmE wɜːrst/)
UNPLEASANT
1.
unpleasant; full of problems :
bad news / weather / dreams / habits
I'm having a really bad day.
It was the worst experience of her life.
Smoking gives you bad breath.
Things are bad enough without our own guns shelling us.
POOR QUALITY
2.
of poor quality; below an acceptable standard :
bad conditions / driving
a bad copy / diet
I thought it was a very bad article.
This isn't as bad as I thought.
That's not a bad idea.
NOT GOOD AT STH
3.
bad at sth / at doing sth ( of a person ) not able to do sth well or in an acceptable way
SYN poor :
a bad teacher
You're a bad liar!
He's a bad loser (= he complains when he loses a game) .
She is so bad at keeping secrets.
SERIOUS
4.
serious; severe :
You're heading for a bad attack of sunburn.
The engagement was a bad mistake.
My headache is getting worse.
NOT APPROPRIATE
5.
[ only before noun ] not appropriate in a particular situation :
I know that this is a bad time to ask for help.
He now realized that it had been a bad decision on his part.
WICKED
6.
morally unacceptable :
The hero gets to shoot all the bad guys.
He said I must have done something bad to deserve it.
CHILDREN
7.
[ usually before noun ] ( especially of children ) not behaving well
SYN naughty :
Have you been a bad boy?
HARMFUL
8.
[ not before noun ] bad for sb/sth harmful; causing or likely to cause damage :
Those shoes are bad for her feet.
Weather like this is bad for business.
PAINFUL
9.
[ usually before noun ] ( of parts of the body ) not healthy; painful :
I've got a bad back.
FOOD
10.
not safe to eat because it has decayed :
Put the meat in the fridge so it doesn't go bad .
TEMPER / MOOD
11.
bad temper / mood the state of feeling annoyed or angry :
It put me in a bad mood for the rest of the day.
GUILTY / SORRY
12.
feel ~ to feel guilty or sorry about sth :
She felt bad about leaving him.
Why should I want to make you feel bad?
ILL / SICK
13.
feel / look ~ to feel or look ill / sick :
I'm afraid I'm feeling pretty bad.
EXCELLENT
14.
( bad·der , bad·dest ) ( slang , especially NAmE ) good; excellent
•
IDIOMS
Most idioms containing bad are at the entries for the nouns and verbs in the idioms, for example be bad news (for sb/sth) is at news .
- can't be bad
- have got it bad
- not bad
- too bad
■ noun
the bad [ U ] bad people, things, or events :
You will always have the bad as well as the good in the world.
•
IDIOMS
- go to the bad
- my bad
- take the bad with the good
- to the bad
■ adverb
( NAmE , informal ) badly :
She wanted it real bad.
Are you hurt bad?
••
VOCABULARY BUILDING
bad and very bad
Instead of saying that something is bad or very bad , try to use more precise and interesting adjectives to describe things:
an unpleasant /a foul /a disgusting smell
appalling / dreadful / severe weather
an unpleasant /a frightening /a traumatic experience
poor / weak eyesight
a terrible / serious / horrific accident
a wicked /an evil /an immoral person
an awkward /an embarrassing /a difficult situation
We were working in difficult / appalling conditions.
To refer to your health, you can say: I feel unwell / sick / terrible ; I don't feel (very) well .
In conversation, words like terrible , horrible , awful and dreadful can be used in most situations to mean 'very bad'.
••
WORD ORIGIN
Middle English : perhaps from Old English bǣddel hermaphrodite, womanish man .