bad

badadjective

Bad describes something of poor quality, unpleasant, harmful, morally wrong, or not done well, and also how a person feels when sorry, guilty, or unwell.

1. poor qualityof poor quality; not good

   • The food at that restaurant was really bad.
   • It was a bad movie, but the music was good.
   • This is a bad translation; too much is missing.

   Collocations

   adverb + adjective really bad, pretty bad, so bad

   Synonyms poor

   Antonyms good

   1. ano longer fresh, safe, or pleasant to eat

      Said of food or drink that has spoiled.

      predicative only [pred]

      • Don't drink that milk; it's gone bad.
      • The meat smelled bad, so we threw it out.

      Collocations

      phrase go bad

2. unpleasant or harmfulunpleasant, or likely to cause harm or difficulty

   • We had some bad weather over the weekend.
   • I have some bad news, I'm afraid.
   • Smoking is bad for your health.

   Collocations

   adjective + noun bad news, bad weather, bad luck

   adjective + preposition bad for

   Antonyms good

3. severemore serious than usual

   • He has a bad cold and can barely talk.
   • It was a bad accident, but everyone survived.
   • She has a bad headache today.

   Collocations

   adjective + noun bad cold, bad accident, bad headache, bad back

   Synonyms severe

4. morally wrongmorally wrong, or not acting the way people should

   disapproving

   • It was a bad thing to do, and he knew it.
   • The children were bad all afternoon.
   • It's bad manners to interrupt someone.

   Collocations

   adjective + noun bad behavior, bad manners, bad habit

   Antonyms good

5. sorry, guilty, or unwellfeeling sorry, guilty, or unwell

   predicative only [pred]

   • I feel bad about forgetting your birthday.
   • She's felt bad ever since the accident.
   • I feel really bad today; maybe I'm getting sick.

   Collocations

   phrase feel bad about, feel bad for someone

   Synonyms sorry

6. not skillednot skilled at doing something

   • I'm bad at remembering names.
   • He's bad at sports but great at music.
   • She's a bad driver and knows it.

   Collocations

   adjective + preposition bad at

   adjective + noun a bad driver, a bad cook

   Antonyms good

   For translators (sense 6)

   Grammar trap Bad at is followed by a noun or an -ing form, not a to-infinitive: bad at swimming, not bad at to swim.