worse

Multiple Entries:
  worse    bad    badly  

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
worse/wɜːs/

▶adjective

• 1 of poorer quality or lower standard.

  ■ more serious, severe, or evil.

• 2 more ill or unhappy.

▶adverb

• 1 less well.

• 2 more seriously or severely.

▶noun a worse event or circumstance.

■ (the worse) a worse condition.

– phrases
none the worse for not adversely affected by.
or worse or as an even worse unspecified alternative.
the worse for drink rather drunk.
the worse for wear informal

• 1 worn.

• 2 feeling rather unwell, especially as a result of drinking too much alcohol.

worse off less fortunate or prosperous.

– origin OE wyrsa, wiersa (adj.), wiers (adv.), of Gmc origin; rel. to war.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
bad/bad/

▶adjective (worse, worst)

• 1 of poor quality or a low standard.

  ■ (often bad at) not able to do a particular thing well.

  ■ inappropriate.

• 2 unwelcome or unpleasant.

  ■ severe or serious.

  ■ (bad for) harmful to.

• 3 offending moral standards or accepted conventions.

• 4 injured, ill, or diseased.

• 5 (of food) decayed.

• 6 guilty; ashamed.

• 7 (badder, baddest) informal, chiefly N. Amer. good; excellent.

– phrases
be bad news informal be unwelcome or unpleasant.
in a bad way ill or in trouble.
to the bad

• 1 to ruin.

• 2 in deficit.

too bad informal indicating that something is regrettable but now beyond retrieval.

– derivatives
baddish adjective,
badness noun.

– origin ME: perh. from OE bǣddel ‘hermaphrodite, womanish man’.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
badly/ˈbadli/

▶adverb (worse, worst)

• 1 in a bad manner.

• 2 severely; seriously.

• 3 very much.

– phrases
badly off not wealthy; poor.