Adjacent Words

Badly definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

BAD'LY, adv. [from bad.] In a bad manner; not well, unskillfully; grievously; unfortunately; imperfectly.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adv
1: to a severe or serious degree; "fingers so badly frozen they had to be amputated"; "badly injured"; "a severely impaired heart"; "is gravely ill"; "was seriously ill" [syn: badly, severely, gravely, seriously]
2: (`ill' is often used as a combining form) in a poor or improper or unsatisfactory manner; not well; "he was ill prepared"; "it ill befits a man to betray old friends"; "the car runs badly"; "he performed badly on the exam"; "the team played poorly"; "ill-fitting clothes"; "an ill-conceived plan" [syn: ill, badly, poorly] [ant: good, well]
3: evilly or wickedly; "treated his parents badly"; "to steal is to act badly"
4: in a disobedient or naughty way; "he behaved badly in school"; "he mischievously looked for a chance to embarrass his sister"; "behaved naughtily when they had guests and was sent to his room" [syn: badly, mischievously, naughtily]
5: with great intensity (`bad' is a nonstandard variant for `badly'); "the injury hurt badly"; "the buildings were badly shaken"; "it hurts bad"; "we need water bad" [syn: badly, bad]
6: very much; strongly; "I wanted it badly enough to work hard for it"; "the cables had sagged badly"; "they were badly in need of help"; "he wants a bicycle so bad he can taste it" [syn: badly, bad]
7: without skill or in a displeasing manner; "she writes badly"; "I think he paints very badly" [ant: well]
8: in a disadvantageous way; to someone's disadvantage; "the venture turned out badly for the investors"; "angry that the case was settled disadvantageously for them" [syn: badly, disadvantageously] [ant: advantageously, well]
9: unfavorably or with disapproval; "tried not to speak ill of the dead"; "thought badly of him for his lack of concern" [syn: ill, badly] [ant: well]
10: with unusual distress or resentment or regret or emotional display; "they took their defeat badly"; "took her father's death badly"; "conducted himself very badly at the time of the earthquake" [ant: well]

Merriam Webster's

adverb Date: 14th century 1. in a bad manner <played badly> 2. to a great or intense degree <want something badly>

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adv. (worse; worst) 1 in a bad manner (works badly). 2 colloq. very much (wants it badly). 3 severely (was badly defeated).

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Badly Bad"ly, adv. In a bad manner; poorly; not well; unskillfully; imperfectly; unfortunately; grievously; so as to cause harm; disagreeably; seriously. Note: Badly is often used colloquially for very much or very greatly, with words signifying to want or need.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(worse, worst) Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. If something is done badly or goes badly, it is not very successful or effective. I was angry because I played so badly... The whole project was badly managed... The coalition did worse than expected, getting just 11.6 per cent of the vote. ? well ADV: ADV with v 2. If someone or something is badly hurt or badly affected, they are severely hurt or affected. The bomb destroyed a police station and badly damaged a church... One man was killed and another badly injured... It was a gamble that went badly wrong. = seriously ADV: ADV with v, ADV adj 3. If you want or need something badly, you want or need it very much. Why do you want to go so badly?... Planes landed at Bagram airport today carrying badly needed food and medicine. = much ADV: ADV with v 4. If someone behaves badly or treats other people badly, they act in an unkind, unpleasant, or unacceptable way. They have both behaved very badly and I am very hurt... I would like to know why we pensioners are being so badly treated. ? well ADV: ADV with v 5. If something reflects badly on someone or makes others think badly of them, it harms their reputation. Teachers know that low exam results will reflect badly on them... Despite his illegal act, few people think badly of him. ? well ADV: ADV after v 6. If a person or their job is badly paid, they are not paid very much for what they do. You may have to work part-time, in a badly paid job with unsociable hours... This is the most dangerous professional sport there is, and the worst paid. = poorly ? well ADV: usu ADV -ed, also ADV after v 7. see also worse, worst

Moby Thesaurus

afield, amiss, astray, atrociously, awfully, awry, carelessly, critically, cruelly, damagingly, dangerously, defectively, deficiently, distressfully, dreadfully, emotionally, erroneously, faultily, gravely, greatly, grievously, hard, hardly, harshly, horribly, improperly, inaccurately, inadequately, inartistically, incorrectly, ineptly, insufficiently, mischievously, painfully, poorly, roughly, seriously, severely, shamefully, shoddily, unacceptably, unfavorably, unfortunately, unkindly, unluckily, unsatisfactorily, unspeakably, unsuccessfully, very much, viciously, vigorously, villainously, wickedly, wretchedly, wrong