or badly, adj. and adv. (colloquial).—Very much; greatly. Also COLLOQUIAL PHRASES: TO GO TO THE BAD = to go to ruin (cf. VIRGIL: in pejus ruere = to go to the worse); TO BE [anything] TO THE BAD = to show a deficit, to be on the wrong side of an account; TO COME BACK AGAIN LIKE A BAD PENNY = (1) of anything unwelcome, and (2) a jocular assurance of return; NOT HALF BAD = fairly good; BAD TO BEAT = difficult to excel; TO WANT BADLY = the superlative of desire; CRUEL BAD = very bad. Also ‘Give a dog a BAD name and you may hang him.’
1816. QUIZ, Grand Master, viii. 25. I’ve really TO THE BAD Some thousands of rupees to add.
1835. R. H. DANA, Jr., Two Years Before the Mast, xv. The captain took a dislike to him, thought he was surly and lazy; and, ‘if you once give a dog a BAD name’—as the sailor phrase is—‘he may as well jump overboard.’
1864. A. TROLLOPE, Lindisfarn Chase, I. 46. [He] went, as the common saying expressively phrases it, TO THE BAD.
1864. M. E. BRADDON, Aurora Floyd, xi. A reckless man, ready TO GO TO THE BAD by any road that can take me there.
1880. G. R. SIMS, Ballads of Babylon (Beauty and the Beast). Let him GO TO THE BAD at his own mad pace.
1884. Pall Mall Gazette, 6 Feb., 4. He was between £70 and £80 TO THE BAD.
1884. HAWLEY SMART, From Post to Finish, xi. When they are in the mood, their very temper makes them BAD TO BEAT.
1888. Chicago Daily Inter Ocean, 9 March. Myers’ absence is seriously annoying to the defense, [they] want Myers, and WANT HIM BAD.
