worse
English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Middle English worse, werse, from Old English wiersa, from Proto-Germanic *wirsizô. Cognate with Dutch wers (“worse”).
Pronunciation
[edit]- (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
[edit]worse
- comparative form of bad: more bad
- Your exam results are worse than before.
- The harder you try, the worse you do.
- comparative form of ill: more ill
- She was very ill last week but this week she’s worse.
Derived terms
[edit]- bad comes to worse
- be the worse for drink
- for better or for worse
- for better or worse
- for the worse
- go from bad to worse
- make matters worse
- none the worse
- none to the worse
- one's bark is worse than one's bite
- so much the worse
- so much the worse for
- take a turn for the worse
- the cure is worse than the disease
- what is worse
- worse-case
- worse comes to worse
- worse comes to worst
- worse for liquor
- worse for ware
- worse for wear
- worse luck
- worse off
- worse things happen at sea
Related terms
[edit]Translations
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Adverb
[edit]worse
- 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.
- comparative form of ill: more ill.
- He's worse-mannered than she is.
- Less skillfully.
- More severely or seriously.
- (sentence adverb) Used to start a sentence describing something that is worse.
- Her leg is infected. Still worse, she's developing a fever.
Translations
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Noun
[edit]worse
- (obsolete) Loss; disadvantage; defeat.
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 2 Kings 4:12:
- Judah was put to the worse before Israel.
- 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
[edit]worse (third-person singular simple present worses, present participle worsing, simple past and past participle worsed)
- (obsolete, transitive) To make worse; to put at disadvantage; to discomfit.
- 1667, John Milton, “Book VI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
- Weapons more violent, when next we meet, / May serve to better us and worse our foes.
Anagrams
[edit]Afrikaans
[edit]Noun
[edit]worse
Chinese
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Adjective
[edit]worse
- (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[1]:
- 「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[2]:
- 「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[3]:
- 「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[4]:
- 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)
Middle English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]- wars, warse, weers, weorse, werce, wers, werse, wershe, wersse, wirse, wors, worsse
- wærse, werrse, wrse, wurse (Early Middle English)
Etymology
[edit]From Old English wiersa, from Proto-West Germanic *wirssō, variant of *wirsiʀō, from Proto-Germanic *wirsizô. Doublet of werre (“worse”).
Pronunciation
[edit]Adjective
[edit]worse
Descendants
[edit]References
[edit]- “werse, adj. (comparative).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
Adverb
[edit]worse
- comparative degree of yvel (adverb)
- comparative degree of ille (adverb)
Descendants
[edit]References
[edit]- “werse, adv. comparative.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
Noun
[edit]worse (uncountable)
Related terms
[edit]Descendants
[edit]References
[edit]- “wers(e, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *wers-
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/ɜː(ɹ)s
- Rhymes:English/ɜː(ɹ)s/1 syllable
- English non-lemma forms
- English comparative adjectives
- English terms with usage examples
- English comparative adverbs
- English terms with quotations
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English nouns with unknown or uncertain plurals
- English terms with obsolete senses
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- Afrikaans non-lemma forms
- Afrikaans noun forms
- Cantonese terms borrowed from English
- Cantonese terms derived from English
- Cantonese terms with IPA pronunciation
- Chinese lemmas
- Chinese adjectives
- Cantonese adjectives
- Cantonese lemmas
- Hong Kong Cantonese
- Chinese terms with quotations
- Middle English terms inherited from Old English
- Middle English terms derived from Old English
- Middle English terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic
- Middle English terms derived from Proto-West Germanic
- Middle English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- Middle English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- Middle English doublets
- Middle English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Middle English non-lemma forms
- Middle English comparative adjectives
- Middle English comparative adverbs
- Middle English lemmas
- Middle English nouns
- Middle English uncountable nouns