Worse

Pronunciation

• RP IPA: /wɜːs/
• US IPA: /wɝs/
• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)s

Origin

From Old English wyrsa, from Proto-Germanic *wirsizô. Cognate with Dutch wers ("worse").

Adjective

1. worse

   (comparative of 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

Adverb

1. worse

   (comparative of badly)
• 2013-07-19, Ian Sample, Irregular bedtimes may affect children's brains, 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. He drives worse than anyone I know.

3. worse

   (comparative of ill)
   .
   He's worse-mannered than she is.
4. Less skillfully.
5. More severely or seriously.
6. sentence adverb Used to start a sentence describing something that is worse.
   Her leg is infected. Still worse, she's developing a fever.

Full definition of worse

Verb

1. (obsolete, transitive) To make worse; to put at disadvantage; to discomfit.
• unknown date Milton.Weapons more violent, when next we meet,
  May serve to better us and worse our foes.

Noun