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Badly vs Worse - What's the difference?

badly | worse |

As adjectives the difference between badly and worse

is that badly is ill, unwell while worse is comparative of bad.

As adverbs the difference between badly and worse

is that badly is in a bad manner while worse is comparative of badly pos=adverb.

As a verb worse is

to make worse; to put at disadvantage; to discomfit.

As a noun worse is

loss; disadvantage; defeat.

badly

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • (Northern England) Ill, unwell.
    • He's never badly'''''. (''He's never '''ill .)

    Adverb

  • In a bad manner.
  • Very much; to a great degree.
    • I want it so badly .

    Usage notes

    * Badly is sometimes used after feel in its copulative sense where one might expect an adjective, ie, bad. Most prescriptive grammarians prefer "I feel bad" to "I feel badly", but "I feel badly" is widely used.

    Anagrams

    * English suppletive adverbs

    worse

    English

    Adjective

    (head)
  • (bad)
    • Your exam results are worse than before.
    The harder you try, the worse you do.
  • More ill.
    • She was very ill last week but this week she’s worse .

    Derived terms

    * go from bad to worse * worse for wear

    Related terms

    * worst

    Adverb

    (head)
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-19, author= Ian Sample
    • , volume=189, issue=6, page=34, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Irregular bedtimes may affect children's brains , passage=Irregular bedtimes may disrupt healthy brain development in young children, according to a study of intelligence and sleeping habits.  ¶ Going to bed at a different time each night affected girls more than boys, but both fared worse on mental tasks than children who had a set bedtime, researchers found.}}
  • (ill).
  • Less skillfully.
  • More severely or seriously.
  • (sentence adverb) Used to start a sentence describing something that is worse.

    • Verb

    (wors)
  • (obsolete) To make worse; to put at disadvantage; to discomfit.
  • * (rfdate) Milton.
    • Weapons more violent, when next we meet, / May serve to better us and worse our foes.

    Statistics

    *

    Noun

  • (obsolete) Loss; disadvantage; defeat.
  • * Bible, Kings xiv. 12
    • Judah was put to the worse before Israel.
  • That which is worse; something less good.
    • Do not think the worse of him for his enterprise.
    (Webster 1913)

    Anagrams

    *