Bad vs Horrible - What's the difference?
bad | horrible |
Not good; unfavorable; negative.
* , chapter=10
, title= Not suitable or fitting.
Seemingly non-appropriate, in manners, etc.
* , chapter=7
, title= Unhealthy.
Tricky; stressful; unpleasant.
Evil; wicked.
Faulty; not functional.
(of food) , rotten, overripe.
(of breath) , foul.
(informal) Bold and daring.
(of a, need or want) Severe, urgent.
Badly.
(slang) error, mistake
* '>citation
*
*
(countable, uncountable, economics) An item (or kind of item) of merchandise with negative value; an unwanted good.
* {{quote-book, title=International Economics: Global Markets and Competition
, first=Henry
, last=Thompson
, pageurl=http://books.google.com/books?id=RQeYBbSlXLIC&lpg=PA97&dq=%22economic%20bad%22&pg=PA97v=onepage&q=%22economic%20bad%22&f=false
, page=97
, year=2011
, edition=3rd
, publisher=World Scientific
, passage=Imports are an economic good but exports an economic bad . Exports must be produced but are enjoyed by foreign consumers.
}}
* {{quote-book, title=Economics
, author=William J. Boyes, Michael Melvin
, pageurl=http://books.google.com/books?id=LgaZaie5V1YC&lpg=PA4&dq=bads&pg=PA4v=onepage&q=bads&f=false
, page=4
, year=2011
, edition=9th
, publisher=Cengage Learning
, passage=An economic bad' is anything that you would pay to get rid of. It is not so hard to think of examples of ' bads : pollution, garbage, and disease fit the description.
}}
(rfm-sense) (slang) Fantastic.
(archaic) .
(British, dialect, transitive) To shell (a walnut).
* 1876 , The Gloucester Journal'', Oct. 7, 1876, reported in William John Thomas, Doran (John), Henry Frederick Turle, Joseph Knight, Vernon Horace Rendall, Florence Hayllar, ''Notes and Queries ,
A thing that causes horror; a terrifying thing, particularly a prospective bad consequence asserted as likely to result from an act.
* 1851 , Herman Melville, Moby Dick
* 1982 , United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, The Genocide Convention: Hearing Before the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate
* 1991 , Alastair Scott, Tracks Across Alaska: A Dog Sled Journey
* 2000 , John Dean,
* 2001 , Neil K. Komesar, Law's Limits: The Rule of Law and the Supply and Demand of Rights
A person wearing a comic or grotesque costume in a parade of horribles.
Causing horror; terrible; shocking.
*
*:Such a scandal as the prosecution of a brother for forgery—with a verdict of guilty—is a most truly horrible , deplorable, fatal thing. It takes the respectability out of a family perhaps at a critical moment, when the family is just assuming the robes of respectability:it is a black spot which all the soaps ever advertised could never wash off.
*, comment=The New Yorker, March 19
, passage=Strangers fainted dead away at the sight of the Laughing Man's horrible face. Acquaintances shunned him.}}
*, author=(Ray Bradbury)
, passage=Some of us have had plastic surgery on our faces and fingerprints. Right now we have a horrible job; we're waiting for the war to begin and, as quickly, end.}}
Tremendously wrong or errant.
*{{quote-book, year=1933, title=(My Life and Hard Times), author=(James Thurber)
, passage=Her own mother lived the latter years of her life in the horrible suspicion that electricity was dripping invisibly all over the house.}}
As adjectives the difference between bad and horrible
is that bad is not good; unfavorable; negative while horrible is causing horror; terrible; shocking.As nouns the difference between bad and horrible
is that bad is error, mistake while horrible is a thing that causes horror; a terrifying thing, particularly a prospective bad consequence asserted as likely to result from an act.As an adverb bad
is badly.As a verb bad
is form of Alternative past tense|bid|lang=en. See {{l/en|bade|bade}}.bad
English
(wikipedia bad)Etymology 1
From (etyl) bad, ).Adjective
The Mirror and the Lamp, passage=He looked round the poor room, at the distempered walls, and the bad engravings in meretricious frames, the crinkly paper and wax flowers on the chiffonier; and he thought of a room like Father Bryan's, with panelling, with cut glass, with tulips in silver pots, such a room as he had hoped to have for his own.}}
Mr. Pratt's Patients, passage=“[…] if you call my duds a ‘livery’ again there'll be trouble. It's bad enough to go around togged out like a life saver on a drill day, but I can stand that 'cause I'm paid for it. What I won't stand is to have them togs called a livery. […]”}}
- Lard is bad'''' for you. Smoking is '''bad''' for you, too. Grapes are '''bad for dogs but not for humans.
Usage notes
The comparative badder and superlative baddest are nonstandard.Synonyms
* (not good) unfavorable, negative * * (not suitable or fitting) * * wicked, evil, vile, vicious * (not functional) faulty * (of food) rotten * (of breath) malodorous, foul * badass * (of a need or want) severe, urgent, dire (to be assigned) * false * spurious * disgusting * wrong * corrupt * ill * base * abandoned * vicious * abominable * detestable * deficient * inferior * lousy * off * poor * punk * substandard * unacceptable * ungodly * unsatisfactory * wanting * wretched * See alsoAntonyms
* good * right * worthy * competent * benevolent * true * honest * just * sincere * beneficial * advantageous * profitable * virtuous * reputable * upright * propitious * choice * excellent * exceptional * first-class * first-rate * premium * prime * superior * adequate * sufficientSee also
* astray * base * bum * contemptible * defective * despicable * dirty * execrable * faulty * flawed * inadequate * insufficient * lacking * lesser * low-grade * mediocre * par * reprehensible * scurrilous * second-rate * under * unspeakable * useless * valueless * villainous * worthlessDerived terms
* bad actor * bad apple * bad beat * bad blood * bad boy * bad breath * bad check * bad debt * baddie * bad egg * bad ending * bad eye * bad fairy * bad faith * bad for you * bad guy * bad hair day * bad hat * bad iron * bad joke * bad language * bad light * bad lot * bad luck * bad man * bad-mannered * bad manners * bad medicine * bad money * bad-mouth * badness * bad news * bad off * bad penny * bad-tempered * Bad Thing * bad to the bone * go bad * not bad * too badAdverb
- I didn't do too bad in the last exam.
Noun
(-)- Sorry, my bad !
Etymology 2
Probably identical to bad , etymology 1, above, especially in the sense "bold, daring".Adjective
(badder)- You is (SIC) bad , man!
- Also Bek is "bad " at Madden.
Etymology 3
From (etyl) .Verb
(head)Etymology 4
Verb
(badd)page 346
- A curious specimen of Gloucestershire dialect c»me out in an assault case heard by the Gloucester court magistrates on Saturday. One of the witnesses, speaking of what a girl was doing at the time the assault took place, said she was ' badding' ' walnuts in a pigstye. The word is peculiarly provincial : to ' '''bad''' ' walnuts is to strip away the husk. The walnut, too, is often called » 'bannut,' and hence the old Gloucestershire phrase, ' Come an' ' bad the bannuts.'
Statistics
*horrible
English
Noun
(en noun)- Here's a carcase. I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I'll go to it laughing. Such a waggish leering as lurks in all your horribles !
- A lot of the possible horribles conjured up by the people objecting to this convention ignore the plain language of this treaty.
- The pot had previously simmered skate wings, cods' heads, whales, pigs' hearts and a long litany of other horribles .
CNN interview, January 21, 2000:
- I'm trying to convince him that the criminal behavior that's going on at the White House has to end. And I give him one horrible after the next. I just keep raising them. He sort of swats them away.
- Many scholars have demonstrated these horribles and contemplated significant limitations on class actions.