Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use badly in a sentence

40 example sentences · adverb, adjective

Badly means in a bad manner. Example: “Things are going badly for her: she did badly in her exams owing to a badly designed studying schedule.”

Examples of badly by meaning

adverbIn a bad manner.

  • Things are going badly for her: she did badly in her exams owing to a badly designed studying schedule.
  • Don't think badly of me: give me the benefit of the doubt.
  • I feel badly about the accident because it was entirely our fault.

adverbVery much; to a great degree.

  • I want it so badly.
  • Look at these split ends! You badly need a haircut!
  • Everything went badly wrong.

adjectiveIll, unwell.

  • He's never badly.

More sentences with badly

  • The President timed his speech badly, coinciding with the Super Bowl.From the entry time
  • Apologizing for losing your temper, even though you were badly provoked, showed real class.From the entry class
  • The house was condemned after it was badly damaged by fire.From the entry condemn
  • Our family used to be well off; now we're very badly off.From the entry off
  • He had scratched his cornea so badly that his doctor told him to wear a patch.From the entry patch
  • I cut myself badly while cooking and needed to go to hospital to get stitches.From the entry stitch
  • The driver and two passengers were badly injured in the smash.From the entry smash
  • The rewards for bringing in badly wanted criminals are printed on 'dead or alive' posters.From the entry reward
  • The company scrimped on the design so badly that it ended up defective.From the entry scrimp
  • Matthew had a twin brother called Edward, who was always mischievous and badly behaved.From the entry mischievous
  • The race has cut up badly with no real opposition to "Serendipity".From the entry cut up
  • He started the competition badly but went on to win the gold medal.From the entry go on
  • He was badly hurt many times but seems to have nine lives.From the entry nine lives
  • Dating the boss is a bad move: if it goes badly, you could self-destruct.From the entry self-destruct
  • Please try not to overreact if she drives badly when she is first learning.From the entry overreact
  • The fender was so badly damaged that it couldn’t be hammered out.From the entry hammer out
  • My cat was badly injured after the neighbour's dog got at her.From the entry get at
  • I've tried hard to do right by him. Even so, he continues to do badly by me.From the entry do by
  • Most of the fence-posts had been broomed up so badly they weren't usable.From the entry broom up
  • The children were badly nettled after playing in the field.From the entry nettle
  • The magician performed badly—none of his tricks worked.From the entry perform
  • The stock market decline wouldn’t have hurt him so badly if he hadn’t had all his eggs in one basket.From the entry all one's eggs in one basket
  • She was sleeping very badly these days, what with the new baby and all the activity surrounding him.From the entry what with
  • The body was badly burned, but still recognizably human.From the entry recognizably
  • The presentation went badly due to the team's unpreparedness.From the entry unpreparedness
  • Everything seems to be going very badly wrong today.From the entry go wrong
  • He's seriously doing badly in school right now. He needs to get back in the game, or he's gonna drop out.From the entry in the game
  • She fared badly in the accident.From the entry fare
  • The moisture warped the board badly.From the entry warp
  • This was a badly costed project.From the entry costed
  • Heat the tomato sauce in a nonreactive pan. Aluminum is particularly not a nonreactive metal, it will discolor badly and impart a strange flavor.From the entry nonreactive
  • After the tornado struck, the town mandated that the owners of the most badly damaged buildings pull a permit to do the required repairs.From the entry pull a permit
  • I'll get you that new video game that you want so badly, but there's a string attached; you must also clean your room at least once a week.From the entry string attached

Meaning of badly

  1. adverb In a bad manner.
  2. adverb Very much; to a great degree.
  3. adjective Ill, unwell.

Full definition of badly

Questions about badly in a sentence

How do you use badly in a sentence?
Badly is used as an adverb and adjective. For example: “Things are going badly for her: she did badly in her exams owing to a badly designed studying schedule.”
What is a short sentence with badly?
“He's never badly.”
What does badly mean?
Badly means in a bad manner.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: badly (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use badly in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/badly. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.