worse
UK /wɜːs/ · US /wɝs/ adverb, noun, verb
Forms worses worsing worsed verse
- adverb Less skillfully. “He drives worse than anyone else I know.”
- adverb More severely or seriously. “The bad news affected me worse than it did my brother.”
- adverb (sentence adverb) Used to start a sentence describing something that is worse. “Her leg is infected. Still worse, she's developing a fever.”
- noun (obsolete) Loss; disadvantage; defeat
- noun That which is worse; something less good. “Do not think the worse of him for his enterprise.”
- verb (obsolete, transitive) To make worse; to put at disadvantage; to discomfit.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Etymology
From Middle English worse, werse, from Old English wiersa, from Proto-West Germanic *wirsiʀō, from Proto-Germanic *wirsizô. Cognate with Dutch wers (“worse”).
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Bad, ill, evil, or corrupt, in a greater degree; more bad or evil; less good; specifically, in poorer health; more sick; --used both in a physical and moral sense.
- noun Loss; disadvantage; defeat. "Judah was put to the worse before Israel." Kings xiv. 12.
- noun That which is worse; something less good; as, think not the worse of him for his enterprise.
- adverb In a worse degree; in a manner more evil or bad. Now will we deal worse with thee than with them. Gen. xix. 9.
Etymology [OE. werse, worse, wurse, AS. wiersa, wyrsa, a comparative with no corresponding positive; akin to OS. wirsa, OFries. wirra, OHG. wirsiro, Icel. verri, Sw. värre, Dan. värre, Goth. waírsiza, and probably to OHG. werran to bring into confusion, E. war, and L. verrere to sweep, sweep along. As bad has no comparative and superlative, worse and worst are used in lieu of them, although etymologically they have no relation to bad.]
Etymology [AS. wiers, wyrs; akin to OS. & OHG. wirs, Icel. verr, Goth, waírs; a comparative adverb with no corresponding positive. See Worse, a.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “worse”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details