worst

Multiple Entries:
  worst    bad    badly  

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
worst/wɜːst/

▶adjective of the poorest quality or the lowest standard.

■ most severe or serious.

▶adverb

• 1 most severely or seriously.

• 2 least well.

▶noun the worst event or circumstance.

■ the worst part or stage of something.

▶verb get the better of.

– phrases
at its (or someone's) worst in the worst state possible.
at worst (or the worst) in the worst possible case.
do one's worst do as much damage as one can (often expressing defiance).
get (or have) the worst of it suffer the most.
if the worst comes to the worst if the most serious or difficult situation arises.

– origin OE wierresta, wyrresta (adj.), wierst, wyrst (adv.), of Gmc origin; rel. to worse.

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.