badly

adverb

bad·ly ˈbad-lē

Synonyms of badly next

: in a bad manner

played badly

: 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

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

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Those questions gave an early indication that the trial was going badly for CNN. —

Gene Maddaus, Variety, 5 Feb. 2025 Many nonprofit and academic studies blame it on the slashing of crucial federal social-aid and housing programs under Reagan’s watch, while others say the bigger problem is that government money meant for the poor gets sucked up in bureaucracy or badly diverted. —

Kevin Fagan, TIME, 4 Feb. 2025 The body was badly decomposed but cops found the man’s hands and feet were bound together, a police source said. —

Thomas Tracy, New York Daily News, 4 Feb. 2025 While those key metrics marked an improvement over the prior-year quarter and were largely in line with Wall Street forecasts, investors reacted badly to a miss on cloud revenue and a higher-than-expected outlook for capital expenditures. —

Dade Hayes, Deadline, 4 Feb. 2025 See all Example Sentences for badly