How to Use badly in a Sentence

badly

adverb
  • She wanted the job badly.
  • I'm badly in need of a vacation.
  • He played badly but I played even worse.
  • His fingers were badly frozen.
  • The failure reflects badly on the administration.
  • The game flipped – and badly – quickly on the Brewers in this one.
    — Journal Sentinel, 15 May 2023
  • When the smoke cleared, the tree was still standing, but it had been badly charred.
    — Ellen Wexler, Smithsonian Magazine, 12 Aug. 2024
  • How could a No. 7 seed be crushing the No. 2 seed so badly?
    — Christopher Kuhagen, Journal Sentinel, 14 Jan. 2024
  • It's become a test of how badly a coach wants this job, but that was one of the goals all along.
    — Nate Atkins, The Indianapolis Star, 3 Feb. 2023
  • The one story nobody has is the time he got beat badly.
    — Jimmy Watkins, cleveland, 2 Aug. 2023
  • The beach near the tracks has eroded badly in recent years.
    — Philip Diehl, The Mercury News, 12 Aug. 2024
  • The Red Sox don't need a starter as badly as the other two Burnes suitors.
    — Andy Biggs, Newsweek, 25 Dec. 2024
  • The body was badly burned — and very little of it remained.
    — Sudarsan Raghavan, Washington Post, 20 May 2022
  • The body was badly burned - and very little of it remained.
    — Isabelle Khurshudyan and Sudarsan Raghavan, Anchorage Daily News, 20 May 2022
  • Through it all, the Lions started to lose, and lose badly.
    — Matthew Scogin, Forbes, 11 Jan. 2025
  • Disney fans agree that this section of the park badly needs change.
    — Sammy Roth, Los Angeles Times, 2 Apr. 2024
  • Once officers arrived at the scene of the crash, a man, badly injured was found in the scene.
    — The Arizona Republic, 13 Aug. 2023
  • In his hard moment, Ovechkin wanted badly to get back on the ice.
    — Stephen Whyno, ajc, 22 Feb. 2023
  • Stanford’s defense was so badly stumped, Keister said the field was wide open all the way to the end zone.
    — Ndaschel, oregonlive, 19 Sep. 2023
  • The old bull was bleeding badly from a cut in his right shoulder.
    — Anton Money, Outdoor Life, 15 Aug. 2024
  • Ben Simmons missed a hook in the paint badly and wasn’t used after the first quarter.
    — Law Murray, New York Times, 30 Apr. 2025
  • On a day when emotions were high and Brady was back in the house, the Patriots stumbled badly from the blocks.
    — Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 10 Sep. 2023
  • In the last five losses, ASU has been beaten, in many cases badly, on the boards.
    — Michelle Gardner, The Arizona Republic, 9 Feb. 2023
  • Two head coaches who could badly use a big win right now.
    — John Talty | [email protected], al, 18 Sep. 2022
  • The first one, in 2020, had ended badly when one of the surfers, Alex Botelho, nearly drowned.
    — William Finnegan, The New Yorker, 23 May 2022
  • One of the reasons people behaved so badly, of course, was the color of their skin.
    — Scott Roxborough, The Hollywood Reporter, 28 Apr. 2023
  • The fleet of C-130s that carry scientists to the poles had started to age badly.
    — Ross Andersen, The Atlantic, 28 Feb. 2025
  • Meanwhile, the Vikings have won nine of their past ten games, but have been badly outgained in three straight.
    — cleveland, 11 Dec. 2022
  • Givens opened the door and jumped out, rolling onto the street, badly scraping her arms, legs and stomach.
    — John Diedrich, Journal Sentinel, 5 Dec. 2024
  • The vibes shouldn’t be good around the team, the Lakers having been badly beaten at the close of quarters and in the fourth quarter throughout the series.
    — Dan Woike, Los Angeles Times, 29 Apr. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'badly.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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