How to Use badly in a Sentence

badly

adverb
  • She wanted the job badly.
  • I'm badly in need of a vacation.
  • He played badly but I played even worse.
  • His fingers were badly frozen.
  • The failure reflects badly on the administration.
  • Why does this hurt him so badly?
    — Jackie Strause, HollywoodReporter, 16 Oct. 2025
  • There are many ways the war could go badly.
    — Steve Chapman, Chicago Tribune, 4 Mar. 2026
  • All three of them were badly missed.
    — Paul Taylor, New York Times, 7 Feb. 2026
  • Why do those tools seem to work so badly here?
    — CBS News, 14 Apr. 2026
  • This group is badly banged up through nine games.
    — Diamond Vences, Charlotte Observer, 4 Nov. 2025
  • The Tigers messed up badly with this one.
    — Zach Pressnell, MSNBC Newsweek, 30 Aug. 2025
  • The 76ers badly need the sum of its parts.
    — Tony Jones, New York Times, 8 Mar. 2026
  • The goalie was badly beaten on all of them.
    — Josh Yohe, New York Times, 1 Feb. 2026
  • Why did biotech stocks perform so badly this week?
    — Allison Deangelis, STAT, 4 June 2026
  • That includes the ones that turn out badly.
    — Sophia Rosenfeld september 26, Literary Hub, 26 Sep. 2025
  • First of all, got his arm badly broken!
    — Sally Jenkins, The Atlantic, 15 Feb. 2026
  • Many people have been badly hurt, and even killed.
    — Shane Croucher, MSNBC Newsweek, 3 Oct. 2025
  • For a bunch of idiots, this did not work out too badly.
    — George Caulkin, New York Times, 2 Oct. 2025
  • All the cars were badly damaged and burned from the crash.
    — Asal Rezaei, CBS News, 4 Mar. 2026
  • And somebody shot and hurt him badly.
    — Stephen Schaefer, Boston Herald, 4 Jan. 2026
  • This is going to end badly, right?
    — Maggie Fremont, Vulture, 13 Mar. 2026
  • But now something has gone badly wrong.
    — Zak Doffman, Forbes.com, 22 Jan. 2026
  • This is going to end badly, right?
    — Chris Branch, New York Times, 10 Oct. 2025
  • Ruf badly cut his knee and limped off the field with the help of a trainer.
    — Ryan Morik, FOXNews.com, 22 May 2025
  • And that's-- that's something that has hurt us badly.
    — CBS News, 10 May 2026
  • But people have been badly hurt.
    — NBC news, 7 June 2026
  • Hicks was badly hurt but survived.
    — Reg Chapman, CBS News, 14 Apr. 2026
  • Painter badly wanted that third out.
    — Matt Gelb, New York Times, 25 Apr. 2026
  • When the smoke cleared, the tree was still standing, but it had been badly charred.
    — Ellen Wexler, Smithsonian Magazine, 12 Aug. 2024
  • Did the young Kay solve her cases badly all those years ago?
    — Graham Hillard, The Washington Examiner, 20 Mar. 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'badly.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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