What does badly mean?

Definitions for badly
ˈbæd libad·ly

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word badly.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. badly, severely, gravely, seriouslyadverb

    to a severe or serious degree

    "fingers so badly frozen they had to be amputated"; "badly injured"; "a severely impaired heart"; "is gravely ill"; "was seriously ill"

  2. ill, badly, poorlyadverb

    (`ill' is often used as a combining form) in a poor or improper or unsatisfactory manner; not well

    "he was ill prepared"; "it ill befits a man to betray old friends"; "the car runs badly"; "he performed badly on the exam"; "the team played poorly"; "ill-fitting clothes"; "an ill-conceived plan"

  3. badlyadverb

    evilly or wickedly

    "treated his parents badly"; "to steal is to act badly"

  4. badly, mischievously, naughtilyadverb

    in a disobedient or naughty way

    "he behaved badly in school"; "he mischievously looked for a chance to embarrass his sister"; "behaved naughtily when they had guests and was sent to his room"

  5. badly, badadverb

    with great intensity (`bad' is a nonstandard variant for `badly')

    "the injury hurt badly"; "the buildings were badly shaken"; "it hurts bad"; "we need water bad"

  6. badly, badadverb

    very much; strongly

    "I wanted it badly enough to work hard for it"; "the cables had sagged badly"; "they were badly in need of help"; "he wants a bicycle so bad he can taste it"

  7. badlyadverb

    without skill or in a displeasing manner

    "she writes badly"; "I think he paints very badly"

  8. badly, disadvantageouslyadverb

    in a disadvantageous way; to someone's disadvantage

    "the venture turned out badly for the investors"; "angry that the case was settled disadvantageously for them"

  9. ill, badlyadverb

    unfavorably or with disapproval

    "tried not to speak ill of the dead"; "thought badly of him for his lack of concern"

  10. badlyadverb

    with unusual distress or resentment or regret or emotional display

    "they took their defeat badly"; "took her father's death badly"; "conducted himself very badly at the time of the earthquake"

Wiktionary

  1. badlyadverb

    In a bad manner.

  2. badlyadverb

    Very much; to a great degree.

    I want it so badly.

  3. badlyadjective

    ill, unwell

    He's never badly. (He's never ill.)

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. Badlyadverb

    In a bad manner; not well.

    Etymology: from bad.

    How goes the day with us? Oh tell me, Hubert. ——
    Badly, I fear. How fares your majesty? William Shakespeare, King John.

ChatGPT

  1. badly

    Badly is an adverb used to describe something done in an unsatisfactory, inadequate, or incorrect way. It can also imply something that is significantly wrong or harmful. Additionally, it is used to express the intensity of an unfavorable state or feeling, such as in the phrase 'feeling badly'.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Badlyadverb

    in a bad manner; poorly; not well; unskillfully; imperfectly; unfortunately; grievously; so as to cause harm; disagreeably; seriously

British National Corpus

  1. Spoken Corpus Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'badly' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #2412

  2. Written Corpus Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'badly' in Written Corpus Frequency: #2381

  3. Adverbs Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'badly' in Adverbs Frequency: #192

Usage in printed sourcesFrom: 

Anagrams for badly »

  1. baldy

  2. blady

How to pronounce badly?

How to say badly in sign language?

Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of badly in Chaldean Numerology is: 2

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of badly in Pythagorean Numerology is: 8

Examples of badly in a Sentence

  1. C.S. Lewis:

    If you love deeply, you're going to get hurt badly. But it's still worth it.

  2. Jyoti Sharma:

    Unless we adapt our water storage to suit the change in rain intensity, we're going to suffer really badly, all parts of India -- rural, urban, everybody.

  3. Katerina Douka:

    The reality is that we can not know whether this single and badly preserved molar belonged indeed to a Denisovan, a hybrid or even an unknown hominin group. It might well be a Denisovan, and I would love it to be a Denisovan, because how cool would that be ? But more confident evidence is needed.

  4. President Barack Obama:

    It is not an economy that's built for the 21st century. Unfortunately, those forces for modernization inside of Russia, I think, have been sidelined. That's bad for Russia and, over time, it's bad for the United States, because if Russia is doing badly, the concern is that they revert to old expansionist ideas that really shouldn't have any application in the 21st century.

  5. Mathew Downing:

    I couldn't hear anything when he had walked in because my ears were ringing so badly, when I saw the gun when he walked in, the first thought in my head was that this couldn't be real.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

badly#1#9700#10000

Translations for badly

From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary

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"badly." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2025. Web. 10 Feb. 2025. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/badly>.

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    long and thin and often limp
    A repugnant
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