bad

Universal Words adjective, noun, adverb adjective (worse ) unpleasant 1 unpleasant; full of problems: bad news / weather / dreams / habits * I'm having a really bad day. * It was the worst experience of her life. * Smoking gives you bad breath. * Things are bad enough without our own guns shelling us. poor quality 2 of poor quality; below an acceptable standard: bad conditions / driving * a bad copy / diet * I thought it was a very bad article. * This isn't as bad as I thought. * That's not a bad idea. not good at sth 3 ~ at sth / at doing sth (of a person) not able to do sth well or in a satisfactory way SYNPOOR: a bad teacher * You're a bad liar! * He's a bad loser (= he complains when he loses a game). * She is so bad at keeping secrets. serious 4 serious; severe: You're heading for a bad attack of sunburn. * The engagement was a bad mistake. * My headache is getting worse. not appropriate 5 [onlybeforenoun] not appropriate in a particular situation: I know that this is a bad time to ask for help. * He now realized that it had been a bad decision on his part. wicked 6 morally unacceptable: The hero gets to shoot all the bad guys. * He said I must have done something bad to deserve it. children 7 [usuallybeforenoun] (especially of children) not behaving well SYNNAUGHTY: Have you been a bad boy? harmful 8 [notbeforenoun] ~ for sb/sth harmful; causing or likely to cause damage: Those shoes are bad for her feet. * Weather like this is bad for business. * Too much work is bad for your health. painful 9 [usuallybeforenoun] (of parts of the body) not healthy; painful: I've got a bad back. food 10 not safe to eat because it has decayed: Put the meat in the fridge so it doesn't go bad. temper / mood 11 ~ temper / mood the state of feeling annoyed or angry: It put me in a bad mood for the rest of the day. guilty / sorry 12 feel ~ to feel guilty or sorry about sth: She felt bad about leaving him. * Why should I want to make you feel bad? ill / sick 13 feel / look ~ to feel or look ill/sick: I'm afraid I'm feeling pretty bad. excellent 14 (badder, baddest) (slang, especially AmE) good; excellent IDIOMS Most idioms containing bad are at the entries for the nouns and verbs in the idioms, for example be bad news (for sb/sth) is at news. can't be bad (spoken) used to try to persuade sb to agree that sth is good: You'll save fifty dollars, which can't be bad, can it? not bad (spoken) quite good; better than you expected: 'How are you?' 'Not too bad.' * That wasn't bad for a first attempt. too bad (spoken) 1 (ironic) used to say 'bad luck' or 'it's a shame' when you do not really mean it: If sometimes they're the wrong decisions, too bad. 2 a shame; a pity: Too bad every day can't be as good as this. 3 (old-fashioned, spoken) annoying: Really, it was too bad of you to be so late. noun (the bad) [U] bad people, things, or events: You will always have the bad as well as the good in the world. IDIOMS go to the bad (old-fashioned) to begin behaving in an immoral way: I hate to see you going to the bad. take the bad with the good to accept the bad aspects of sth as well as the good ones to the bad (BrE) used to say that sb now has a particular amount less money than they did before: After the sale they were ｣300 to the bad. adverb (AmE, informal) badly: She wanted it real bad. * Are you hurt bad? ______________________________ VOCABULARYBUILDING bad and very bad Instead of saying that something is bad or very bad, try to use more precise and interesting adjectives to describe things: an unpleasant/a foul/a disgusting smell appalling/dreadful/severe weather an unpleasant/a frightening/a traumatic experience poor/weak eyesight a terrible/serious/horrific accident a wicked/an evil/an immoral person an awkward/an embarrassing/a difficult situation We were working in difficult/appalling conditions. To refer to your health, you can say: I feel unwell/sick/terrible; I don't feel (very) well. In conversation words like terrible, horrible, awful and dreadful can be used in most situations to mean 'very bad'. ______________________________