Word.ws English Dictionary

in the worst way

in the worst way adverb: urgently; desperately; to an extreme degree.

Adverb

in the worst way (superlative form only)

  1. (Canada, US, idiomatic) Urgently; desperately; to an extreme degree.
    • I need a drink of water in the worst way.
    • Man, I need a life in the worst way.2008 March 17, Kady O'Malley, “Wake me up when it’s — what’s the opposite of ‘over’?”, in Macleans, Canada, retrieved 27 Dec 2016
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see in, the, worst, way.
    Synonyms:
    something awful

Examples of in the worst way in a sentence

  • I wanted this to work in the worst way because my reputation was on the line here. . . .2010 February 11, T. Coraghessan Boyle, “Excerpt: Wild Child”, in New York Times, retrieved 27 Dec 2016:
  • Stern as well as assorted television executives needed a game seven in the worst way, and "the worst way" might be how they're getting one.2012 May 25, Hunter Felt, “NBA playoffs preview”, in Guardian, UK, retrieved 27 Dec 2016:

Synonyms of in the worst way

Forms of in the worst way

superlativeform only

Questions about in the worst way

What does in the worst way mean?
In the worst way means urgently; desperately; to an extreme degree.
How do you use in the worst way in a sentence?
I wanted this to work in the worst way because my reputation was on the line here. . . .
What part of speech is in the worst way?
In the worst way is an adverb.

Words near in the worst way in the dictionary

  1. in the wind
  2. in the wind's eye
  3. in the wink of an eye
  4. in the works
  5. in the world
  6. in the worst way
  7. in the wrong
  8. in the wrong place at the wrong time
  9. in the zone
  10. in theory
  11. in there like swimwear

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: in the worst way (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-in the worst way.ogg.

Cite this entry: “in the worst way.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/in_the_worst_way. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.