worse
adjectiveadverbnounverbtop 1 000 in film dialogue
- United Kingdom//wɜːs//
- United States//wɝs//
- United States/[wəɪs]/
- //wɔːs//
Less skillfully.
adjective
- 1
Also a form of badcomparative form of bad: more bad
Your exam results are worse than before.
Etymology
From Middle English worse, werse, from Old English wiersa, from Proto-West Germanic *wirsiʀō, from Proto-Germanic *wirsizô. Cognate with Dutch wers (“worse”).
adverb
- 1
Less skillfully.
He drives worse than anyone else I know.
- 2
More severely or seriously.
The bad news affected me worse than it did my brother.
- 3
Used to start a sentence describing something that is worse.
Her leg is infected. Still worse, she's developing a fever.
- 4
Also a form of badlycomparative form of badly (adverb): more badly
The harder you try, the worse you do.
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.
noun
- 1
obsoleteLoss; disadvantage; defeat
Judah was put to the worse before Israel.
- 2
That which is worse; something less good.
Do not think the worse of him for his enterprise.
verb
- 1
obsoleteTo make worse; to put at disadvantage; to discomfit.
Weapons more violent, when next we meet, / May serve to better us and worse our foes.
Forms
- past tense
- worsed
- past participle
- worsed
- present participle
- worsing
- third person singular
- worses