badly

adverb

bad·​ly ˈbad-lē 

1

: in a bad manner

played badly

2

: to a great or intense degree

want something badly

Phrases

badly off for

British

: strongly in need of (something or someone)

It may seem pie in the sky in the current financial climate, but few could argue that for a city of its size and prestige, Edinburgh is badly off for large-scale sports facilities.

—The Evening News (Edinburgh)

not badly

: fairly or acceptably well

The economy is doing not badly and looks even better than it really is.

—Tom Teepen

think badly of

: to have an unfavorable or low opinion of (someone or something)

"You shouldn't think badly of the town because of this," said Brogan. "It is a good town."

—Neil Gaiman

Synonyms

• bad
• deficiently
• inadequately
• lousily
• poorly
• unacceptably
• unsatisfactorily
• wretchedly

Examples of badly in a Sentence

He played badly but I played even worse.

The failure reflects badly on the administration.

She wanted the job badly.

I'm badly in need of a vacation.

His fingers were badly frozen.

Recent Examples on the Web

But the supply for most of our goods and services had been badly disrupted. —Marco Rubio, Newsweek, 2 Nov. 2024

Cleveland led by 19 after the first quarter and the game was never close after that, the Lakers sputtering badly on both ends of the court. —Dan Woike, Los Angeles Times, 31 Oct. 2024

Boeing bungled its recent mission to ferry astronauts to the ISS so badly that SpaceX has at least a temporary monopoly over astronaut launches from American soil. —Marina Koren, The Atlantic, 5 Nov. 2024

Jourdain needed the win badly and got the $50,000 bonus. —Brian Mazique, Forbes, 3 Nov. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing badly

• badly off

Kids Definition

badly

adverb

bad·​ly ˈbad-lē 

worse

ˈwərs

; worst

ˈwərst

1

: in a bad manner

played badly

2

: very much

wanted the jeans badly