worse

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Middle English worse, werse, from Old English wiersa, from Proto-Germanic *wirsizô. Cognate with Dutch wers (“worse”).

Pronunciation
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /wɜːs/
  • (US) IPA(key): /wɝs/
  • (US, New York City, archaic) IPA(key): [wəɪs]
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)s

Adjective

worse

  1. comparative form of bad: more bad
    Your exam results are worse than before.
    The harder you try, the worse you do.
  2. comparative form of ill: more ill
    She was very ill last week but this week she’s worse.

Derived terms

Translations

Adverb

worse

  1. comparative form of badly (adverb): more badly
    He drives worse than anyone I know.
    • 2013 July 19, Ian Sample, “Irregular bedtimes may affect children's brains”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, page 34:
      Irregular bedtimes may disrupt healthy brain development in young children, according to a study of intelligence and sleeping habits.  ¶ Going to bed at a different time each night affected girls more than boys, but both fared worse on mental tasks than children who had a set bedtime, researchers found.
  2. comparative form of ill: more ill.
    He's worse-mannered than she is.
  3. Less skillfully.
  4. More severely or seriously.
  5. (sentence adverb) Used to start a sentence describing something that is worse.
    Her leg is infected. Still worse, she's developing a fever.

Translations

Noun

worse

  1. (obsolete) Loss; disadvantage; defeat.
  2. That which is worse; something less good.
    Do not think the worse of him for his enterprise.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “worse”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Verb

worse (third-person singular simple present worses, present participle worsing, simple past and past participle worsed)

  1. (obsolete, transitive) To make worse; to put at disadvantage; to discomfit.

Anagrams

Afrikaans

Noun

worse

  1. plural of wors

Chinese

Alternative forms

Etymology

From English worse or worst.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /wœs⁵⁵/

Adjective

worse

  1. (Hong Kong Cantonese) bad; terrible (usually used with intensifier 好)
    • 2012 January 20, 楊千樺 [Miriam Yeung], quotee, “楊千嬅最壞打算屋企生”, in 東方日報‎:
      「醫生幫我搞好晒！應該冇問題卦！不過如果好worse嘅話，惟有用最古老方法喺屋企生囉！咁突發都估計唔到架！」
      Doctors will help me settle everything properly. There should be no problem. But if it becomes very bad, then I will have to use the ancient way of giving birth at home. No one knows if this can suddenly happen!
    • 2020 January 22, 馬仲儀, quotee, “【武漢肺炎大爆發】新病毒與冬季流感同時殺到 前線醫護憂隱性個案爆發”, in 眾新聞‎:
      「逼到你伸開隻手就掂到對方（鄰床病人），好worse㗎嘛。」
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)
    • 2020 May 31, 阿然, quotee, “【香港的傷痕】一名大學生的四件事——上Gear、被捕、求醫、見官”, in 獨立媒體‎:
      「如果我變返做勇武，咁情況一定好worse（糟糕），有啲嘢令我睇唔過眼。」
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)
    • 2022 May 27, 黃世英, quotee, “【母親節】乳癌化療期再染新冠撐過痛楚　媽媽：只想三代同堂樂聚天倫”, in 香港經濟日報 TOPick‎:
      自己當時懷孕近九個月，而疫情嚴重，不方便外出，一想到不能探望、買物資送給在家隔離的媽媽，心裡非常擔憂，睇唔到佢幾辛苦，我又大住肚，嗰日喊咗一個朝早，覺得好無助，世界好worse（糟糕），公立醫院冇晒資源。
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)
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