Word.ws English Dictionary

having it bad

having it bad is the present participle and gerund of have it bad.

Meaning of have it bad

Verb

have it bad (third-person singular simple present has it bad, present participle having it bad, simple past and past participle had it bad)

  1. To be obsessed (with); to be enthralled (by); to be in love (with).
    • Her smile was reward enough for the thought, and realizing it, he knew he had it bad.1993, Dana Stabenow, Dead in the Water, →ISBN, page 68
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see have, it, bad. To have a difficult time; to suffer.
    • ‘As if the girls didn’t have it bad enough without poncified bastards like you coming and murdering them.’1938, J. Curtis, They Drive by Night, page 121

Questions about having it bad

What is having it bad the present participle and gerund of?
Having it bad is the present participle and gerund of have it bad.

Words near having it bad in the dictionary

  1. having in
  2. having in mind
  3. having it
  4. having it all
  5. having it away
  6. having it bad
  7. having it both ways
  8. having it coming
  9. having it down
  10. having it easy
  11. having it going on

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: having it bad (page history and authors); have it bad (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “having it bad.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/having_it_bad. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.