[ UK /bˈæd/ ]
[ US /ˈbæd/ ]
ADJECTIVE
  1. not capable of being collected
    a bad (or uncollectible) debt
  2. having undesirable or negative qualities
    the news was very bad
    a bad little boy
    his sloppy appearance made a bad impression
    the pay is bad
    the movie was a bad choice
    a bad cut
    a bad report card
    bad luck
    clothes in bad shape
    it was a bad light for reading
    the reviews were bad
  3. not working properly
    a defective appliance
    a bad telephone connection
  4. capable of harming
    smoking is bad for you
    bad air
  5. not financially safe or secure
    high risk investments
    anything that promises to pay too much can't help being risky
    speculative business enterprises
    a bad investment
  6. below average in quality or performance
    a bad chess player
    a bad recital
  7. reproduced fraudulently
    like a bad penny...
    a forged twenty dollar bill
  8. feeling physical discomfort or pain (`tough' is occasionally used colloquially for `bad')
    he was feeling tough after a restless night
    my throat feels bad
    she felt bad all over
  9. very intense
    in a big rage
    a bad storm
    a bad headache
    had a big (or bad) shock
    a bad earthquake
  10. feeling or expressing regret or sorrow or a sense of loss over something done or undone
    regretful over mistakes she had made
    he felt bad about breaking the vase
    felt regretful over his vanished youth
  11. (of foodstuffs) not in an edible or usable condition
    a refrigerator full of spoilt food
    bad meat
  12. physically unsound or diseased
    bad teeth
    an unsound limb
    a bad heart
    unsound teeth
    has a bad back
  13. characterized by wickedness or immorality
    led a very bad life
  14. nonstandard
    so-called bad grammar
ADVERB
  1. very much; strongly
    I wanted it badly enough to work hard for it
    he wants a bicycle so bad he can taste it
    they were badly in need of help
    the cables had sagged badly
  2. with great intensity (`bad' is a nonstandard variant for `badly')
    we need water bad
    it hurts bad
    the buildings were badly shaken
    the injury hurt badly
NOUN
  1. that which is below standard or expectations as of ethics or decency
    take the bad with the good
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How To Use bad In A Sentence

  • It's not bad but neither is it brilliant - which won't bother 99 per cent of buyers one jot as they are in it for the image.
  • I bought a dozen eggs and every one of them was bad.
  • Shah went forth with her for a distance of three parasangs; after which he bade farewell to her and the Wazir and those with him, and returned to his home in gladness and safety. The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night
  • It got so bad that 12 patrolmen and two police dogs were kept on duty outside the home for several days.
  • I badly wanted the job, but knew that my age would probably tell against me.
  • Not bad for someone who failed to shine at school and feared he would end up in a coalyard. The Sun
  • When the King heard this, he bade his son be slain; but on the next day the second Wazir came forward for intercession and kissed ground in prostration. The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night
  • The only seriously bad bit is that you become less agile and less strong. Times, Sunday Times
  • Their dried dung is found everywhere, and is in many places the only fuel afforded by the plains; their skulls, which last longer than any other part of the animal, are among the most familiar of objects to the plainsman; their bones are in many districts so plentiful that it has become a regular industry, followed by hundreds of men (christened "bone hunters" by the frontiersmen), to go out with wagons and collect them in great numbers for the sake of the phosphates they yield; and Bad Lands, plateaus, and prairies alike, are cut up in all directions by the deep ruts which were formerly buffalo trails. VIII. The Lordly Buffalo
  • My generation was raised on a diet of stultifyingly tedious, but worthy accounts of embryology, typically very badly printed on what appeared to be rice paper.
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