worse

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (deprecated use of |lang= parameter) IPA^(key): /wɜːs/
• (deprecated use of |lang= parameter) IPA^(key): /wɝs/
• (deprecated use of |lang= parameter)

  Audio (US):

  (file)

• (deprecated use of |lang= parameter) 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. More ill.

   She was very ill last week but this week she’s worse.

Derived terms

• go from bad to worse
• worse for wear

Related terms

• worst

Translations

comparative form of bad

• Arabic: أَسْوَأ (ʔaswaʔ)
• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: по-лош (bg) (po-loš)
• Catalan: pitjor (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 更壞／更坏 (zh), 更坏 (zh) (gèng huài), 更糟 (gèng zāo), 比較壞／比较坏, 比较坏 (bǐjiào huài)

• Cornish: gweth
• Czech: horší (cs)
• Danish: værre
• Dutch: slechter (nl), erger (nl)
• Esperanto: pli malbona
• French: pire (fr), plus mauvais
• Friulian: piês
• Galician: peor
• Georgian: უფრო ცუდი (upro cudi), უარესი (uaresi)
• German: schlechter (de), schlimmer (de), ärger (de)
• Greek:

  Ancient: χείρων (kheírōn)

• Italian: peggiore (it)
• Japanese: さらに…悪い (sara ni…warui), もっと悪い (もっとわるい, motto warui), いっそう悪い (いっそうわるい, issō warui), より悪い (...yori warui)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Khmer: អាក្រក់ជាង (aakrɑk cieŋ)
• Korean: 더 나쁜 (doe nappun)
• Ladin: piec
• Latin: peior
• Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
• Norwegian: verre (no)
• Persian: بدتر (fa) (badtar)
• Polish: gorszy (pl) m
• Portuguese: pior (pt)
• Romansch: mender, pês, pêr
• Russian: ху́же (ru) (xúže)
• Sardinian: pejus, peus
• Sicilian: peggiu (scn)
• Spanish: peor (es)
• Swedish: värre (sv)
• Thai: เลวกว่า,แย่กว่า
• Ukrainian: гі́рще (híršče)
• Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can
• Walloon: peyeu (wa) m, pé (wa) m or f

Adverb

worse

1. comparative form of badly (adverb): more badly
   • Template:quote-magazine

   He drives worse than anyone I know.

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.

Verb

1. (obsolete, transitive) To make worse; to put at disadvantage; to discomfit.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Milton.

     Weapons more violent, when next we meet, / May serve to better us and worse our foes.

Noun

worse

1. (obsolete) Loss; disadvantage; defeat.
   • Bible, Kings xiv. 12

     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.

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.)

Anagrams

• Rowse, WOREs, owers, owres, resow, serow, sower, sowre, swore