bad
Of low quality.
Adjective
- Of low quality.
- That movie was really bad!
Synonyms: cruddy lousy shoddy ass bad base below par bottom-shelf BTEC bum cheap cheap and nasty cheapshit cheesy chintzy coffee-and crap crappo crappy craptastic crapperific craptabulous craptacular crummy
- Inaccurate; incorrect
- A bad guess.
- This sentence has bad grammar!
- He speaks bad German!
- Unfavorable; negative; not good.
- Hiring practice is very bad in this company.
- The weather looks pretty bad right now.
- You have very bad grades.
Synonyms: unfavorable negative
- Not suitable or fitting.
- Do you think it is a bad idea to confront him directly?
Synonyms: inappropriate unfit bad discommensurate improper inapt incommensurate inept inopportune out of line out of order out of place unapt unhappy unseemly unsuitable
- Not appropriate, of manners etc.
- It is bad manners to talk with your mouth full.
- “[…] if you call my duds a ‘livery’ again there'll be trouble. It's bad enough to go around togged out like a life saver on a drill day, but I can stand that 'cause I'm paid for it. What I won't stand is to have them...
- Harmful, especially unhealthy; liable to cause health problems.
- Lard is bad for you. Smoking is bad for you, too. Grapes are bad for dogs but not for humans.
Synonyms: unhealthful unwholesome harmful damaging deleterious detrimental hurtful inimical injurious mischievous nocent nocuous noxious noisome prejudicial scathand scathel sullen venom
- Sickly, unhealthy, unwell.
- Joe's in a bad way; he can't even get out of bed.
- I went to the hospital to see how my grandfather was doing. Unfortunately, he's in a bad state.
- I've had a bad back since the accident.
Synonyms: ill poorly sickly ailing bad crank crook green about the gills icky indisposed infirm like death warmed over lousy maladive mawkish off one's feed on the Pat and Mick out of sorts Pat and Mick punk puny queer ropy rough
- The injured or weak one of a pair of body parts, where the other one is healthy.
- I accidentally put my weight on my bad leg and fell over.
- Not behaving; behaving badly; misbehaving; mischievous or disobedient.
- Stop being bad, or you will get a spanking!
- I can tell that new kid at our daycare is trouble […] He's picking out his favorite corner to stand in when he's bad. - 2014 August 28, Tom Armstrong, Marvin (comic):
- Tricky; stressful; unpleasant.
- Divorce is usually a bad experience for everybody involved.
Synonyms: foul loathsome abhorrant abhorrent bad bum vile demonic disagreeable disgusting distasteful rancid fulsome gooey grim gro grody gross grotty harsh munted nasty nauseous offensive
- Evil; wicked.
- Be careful. There are bad people in the world.
Synonyms: vile vicious abandoned arrant bad bad apple bad seed baleful scurrilous baneful base black-hearted dark deleterious demonic depraved despicable detrimental devilish diabolical evil evil-minded facinorous flagitious
- Faulty; not functional.
- I had a bad headlight.
Synonyms: inoperative bad borked broken broken-down bum bung busted cactused crocked dead Donald Ducked down duff faulty flaky FUBAR fucked fuckered up janky jiggered kaput knackered malfunctioning
Origin
From Middle English bad, badde (“wicked, evil, depraved”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps a shortening of Old English bæddel (“hermaphrodite”) (for loss of -el compare Middle English muche from Old English myċel, and Middle English wenche from Old English wenċel), or at least related to it and/or to bǣ̆dan (“to defile”), compare Old High German pad (“hermaphrodite”). Alternatively, perhaps a loan from Old Norse into Middle English, compare Norwegian bad (“effort, trouble, fear”, neuter noun), East Danish bad (“damage, destruction, fight”, neuter noun), from the Proto-Germanic noun *badą, whence also Proto-Germanic *badōną (“to frighten”), Old Saxon undarbadōn (“to frighten”), Norwegian Nynorsk bada (“to weigh down, press”); ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰedʰ- (“to bend, press, push, oppress”). False cognate of Persian بد (bad).
Forms
Synonyms
abandoned abominable base corrupt deficient detestable disgusting inferior lousy off poor punk substandard unacceptable ungodly unsatisfactory vicious wanting wretched wrong abysmal atrocious awful bad
Antonyms
adequate advantageous beneficial benevolent choice competent excellent exceptional first-class first-rate good honest just premium prime profitable propitious reputable right sincere sufficient superior true upright
Hyponyms
low-quality harmful lamentable evil vile mediocre nasty appalling unpleasant
Related
Adjective slang
- Bold, daring, and tough.
- He's the baddest guy in town!
Synonyms: badass adventurous mettlesome aweless bad bold brass-balled chivalrous courageous daredevil daring dauntless doughty fearless fortitudinous gallant gutsy heroic intrepid lionhearted orped plucky stalwart stalworth
- Good, superlative, excellent, cool.
- Man, that new car you bought is bad!
- You is bad, man!
- He's the big bad wolf in your neighborhood / not bad meaning bad, but bad meaning good - 1986, Darryl McDaniels, Joseph Simmons, “Peter Piper”, in Raising Hell, performed by Run-DMC:
Synonyms: acceptable agreeable all right amazing as fine as Dick's hatband awesome beatific bene blissful bodacious bona brilliant celestial commendable cool dandy as candy decent delightful divine enjoyable excellent exceptional fabulous fantastic
- Overly promiscuous, licentious.
- You leave your girl around me; if she's bad she's gonna get stuck. - 2005, “Stay Fly”, in Jordan Houston, Darnell Carlton, Paul Beauregard, Premro Smith, Marlon Goodwin, David Brown, Willie Hutchinson (lyrics), Most...
Synonyms: abandoned common easy fast lascivious lewd liberal libidinous licentious loose lustful lusty promiscuous riggish slack unchaste wanton wappened
- Very attractive; hot, sexy.
- Hopefully I can pull some bad bitches tonight.
- Attractive due to (one's) rebellious nature.
- That boy is the baddest!
- She's the baddest girl!
Forms
Synonyms
abysmal atrocious awful bad chronic coarse corny crap crapalicious crappy crummy deityforsaken dire disagreeable dismal dogshit dreadful fifth-rate foul fourth-rate godawful hellish hideous hopeless
Antonyms
Hyponyms
low-quality harmful lamentable evil vile mediocre nasty appalling unpleasant
Related
astray base bum contemptible defective despicable dirty execrable faulty flawed inadequate insufficient lacking lesser low-grade mediocre par reprehensible scurrilous second-rate under unspeakable useless valueless
Derived
a bad penny always comes back a bad penny always turns up a bad tree does not yield good apples a bad workman always blames his tools bad actor bad aji bad apple bad appling badarse bad-ass bad ass bad-assery bad-assness Bad Axe bad baby bad bank bad beat bad belle bad bishop bad bitch bad blood bad books bad-boy bad boy
Adjective informal, not comparable
Synonyms
abysmal atrocious awful bad chronic coarse corny crap crapalicious crappy crummy deityforsaken dire disagreeable dismal dogshit dreadful fifth-rate foul fourth-rate godawful hellish hideous hopeless
Antonyms
Hyponyms
low-quality harmful lamentable evil vile mediocre nasty appalling unpleasant
Related
Adverb
- Badly; poorly.
- I didn't do too bad in the last exam.
- He is quite bad off now that both his parents lost their jobs.
- The sacked quarterback was hurting bad. His back ached so bad that he had to lie down.
- Badly; severely, extremely, passionately, eagerly.
- Please come back, baby. I miss you so bad!
- I want you / I want you so bad, it's driving me mad - 1969, Lennon–McCartney, “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)”, in Abbey Road, performed by The Beatles:
Forms
Interjection
- Used to scold a misbehaving child or pet.
- Bad! You know you're not allowed in the kitchen after dinner.
Noun
- Something that is bad; a harm or evil.
- We idealize God as supergoodness in order to protect against a bad that we cannot unite with ourselves. - 2001, Ann Belford Ulanov, Finding Space: Winnicott, God, and Psychic Reality, page 59:
- Error; mistake.
- "My bad, My bad!” Juwan yelled, scowling - 1993, Mitch Albom, Fab five: basketball, trash talk, the American dream:
- “Chico, you're late again.” I turned around and stared him in his beady eyes. “I missed my bus. My bad, Donald.” “Your bad? Your bad? What kind of English is that? - 2003, Zane, Skyscraper, page 7:
- Teresa broke out in laughter. “Dang, I sound like I'm talking to my man.” “I tried your cell phone, but you didn't answer.” “I left it at home, Friday. My bad.” “Yeah, your bad.” I laughed. “Really, I'm sorry. It won't...
- An item (or kind of item) of merchandise with negative value; an unwanted good.
- Imports are an economic good but exports an economic bad. Exports must be produced but are enjoyed by foreign consumers. - 2011, Henry Thompson, International Economics: Global Markets and Competition, 3rd edition,...
- An economic bad is anything that you would pay to get rid of. It is not so hard to think of examples of bads: pollution, garbage, and disease fit the description. - 2011, William J. Boyes, Michael Melvin, Economics, 9th...
Forms
Verb alternative, archaic
- alternative past of bid. See bade.
Origin
From Middle English bad, from Old English bæd, first- and third-person singular indicative past tense of biddan (“to ask”).
Verb UK, dialectal
- To shell (a walnut).
- A curious specimen of Gloucestershire dialect came out in an assault case heard by the Gloucester court magistrates on Saturday. One of the witnesses, speaking of what a girl was doing at the time the assault took...
Origin
Unknown.