bad

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“
It just bates it, it does What you call the bad is the cry of youth that resents being curbed: and the GOOD is the WOMAN in you struggling for an outlet," explained Jerry Will you help me to give it an outlet, Mr. Jerry In any way in my power, Peg As they stood looking at each other the momentary something was trembling on both their lips and beating in both of their hearts.

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Definitions (60)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (25)

  1. adjective Not achieving an adequate standard; poor: a bad concert.
  2. adjective Evil; sinful.
  3. adjective Vulgar or obscene: bad language.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (16)

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Examples (41)

  • But the only time I had ever come around feeling anywhere near this bad was after that trip I took to the edge of the Bubble. —  Gardner Dozois - The Year's Best Science Fiction 23rd Annual Collection (2006)
  • The single most important point I can make, though, is that the bad was all temporary. —  Aaron Mentele, Charisma 18
  • Thunder coach Brent Bilodeau has been suspended for one game by the Central Hockey League for his actions following what he described as a bad call by the referee during Sunday's loss to Bossier-Shreveport. —  Kansas.com Blogs Master Site Feed
  • "Last time I saw a crime this bad was a couple weeks ago at the Chatterbox [Café], when Dorothy ran out of rhubarb pie," lifelong Lake Wobegon resident Daryl Tollerud told reporters. —  digg.com: Stories / Popular
  • Games this bad are acceptable early in a consoles lifespan, but its way to late in the day for this tripe to be considered anything less than an insult. —  Computer And Video Games
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

new ·  better ·  terrible ·  strong

Used in the same contextWord Family

bad:   worse ·  worst
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English badde.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Middle English bad, badde, bad, worthless, wicked, prob. a generalized adjective use (with loss of -l, as. in Middle English muche for muchel, from Anglo-Saxon mycel, much; Middle English lyte for lytel, from Anglo-Saxon lytel, little; Middle English wenche for wenchel, from Anglo-Saxon wencel: see much, mickle, lite, lyte, little, and wench) of a noun, *baddel, from Anglo-Saxon bæddel (twice, in glosses), with equivalent deriv. bædling (suffix -ing), an effeminate person, a hermaphrodite, with formative -el, from bæd = Old High German *bad, pad, a hermaphrodite (Leo). This word appears to exist also in some Anglo-Saxon local names, but traces elsewhere are slight; cf. Anglo-Saxon *bede, “pede, immatura,” negative *or-bede, “or-pede, adultus,” in glosses. This etymology, first suggested by Leo, is uncertain, but it is the only one that fairly satisfies the phonetic and historical conditions; the word can have no connection, as suggested, with Gothic (Moesogothic) bauths, deaf and dumb, with G. böse, bad, or with Cornish bad, Irish Gaelic baodh, foolish, etc. The orig. word, Anglo-Saxon bæddel, Middle English *baddel, on account of its sinister import, is scarcely found in literature, but, like other words of similar sense, it prob. flourished in vulgar speech as an indefinite term of abuse, and at length, divested of its original meaning, emerged in literary use as a mere adjective, badde, equivalent to the older evil. (Cf. the similar development of the adjective wicked, Middle English wicked, wikked, earlier wicke, wikke, from the noun Anglo-Saxon wicca, masculine, a witch, wizard, hence an evil person: see wicked.) The adjective first appears at the end of the 13th century, and does not become common till the 15th century. In high literary use it is comparatively rare, as against evil, till the 18th century. In the English Bible bad occurs but rarely, and only in the familiar antithesis with good. Bad was formerly compared reg. badder, baddest, but has now taken from evil the irreg. comparison worse, worst.
 

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/bæd/
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