BAD

BAD (word)

adj. worse , worst

 1. Not achieving an adequate standard; poor: a bad concert.

bad grammar

 2. Evil; sinful.

 3. Vulgar or obscene: bad language.

 4. Informal Disobedient or naughty: bad children.

 5. Disagreeable, unpleasant, or disturbing: a bad piece of news.

 6. Unfavorable: bad reviews for the play.

 7. Not fresh; rotten or spoiled: bad meat.

 8. Injurious in effect; detrimental: bad habits.

 9. Not working properly; defective: a bad telephone connection.

10. Full of or exhibiting faults or errors: bad grammar.

11. Having no validity; void: passed bad checks.

12. Being so far behind in repayment as to be considered a loss: bad loans.

13. Severe; intense: a bad cold.

14. a. Being in poor health or in pain: I feel bad today.

      b. Being in poor condition; diseased: bad lungs.

15. Sorry; regretful: She feels bad about how she treated you.

16. bad·der, bad·dest Slang Very good; great.

Usage Note: Bad is often used as an adverb in sentences such as The house was shaken up pretty bad or We need water bad. This usage is common in informal speech but is widely regarded as unacceptable in formal writing. In an earlier survey, the sentence His tooth ached so bad he could not sleep was unacceptable to 92 percent of the Usage Panel. · The use of badly with want was once considered incorrect but is now entirely acceptable: We wanted badly to go to the beach. · The adverb badly is often used after verbs such as feel, as in I felt badly about the whole affair. This usage bears analogy to the use of other adverbs with feel, such as strongly in We feel strongly about this issue. Some people prefer to maintain a distinction between feel badly and feel bad, restricting the former to emotional distress and using the latter to cover physical ailments; however, this distinction is not universally observed, so feel badly should be used in a context that makes its meaning clear. · Badly is used in some regions to mean "unwell," as in He was looking badly after the accident. Poorly is also used in this way. In an earlier survey, however, the usage was found unacceptable in formal writing by 75 percent of the Usage Panel.

Our Living Language Most people might think that the slang usage of bad to mean its opposite, "excellent," is a recent innovation of Black English. While it is of Black English origin, this usage has been recorded for over a century; the first known example dates from 1897. Even earlier, beginning in the 1850s, the word appears in the sense "formidable, very tough," as applied to persons. Whether or not the two usages are related, they both illustrate a favorite creative device of informal and slang languageusing a word to mean the opposite of what it "really" means. This is by no means uncommon; people use words sarcastically to mean the opposite of their actual meanings on a daily basis. What is more unusual is for such a usage to be generally accepted within a larger community. Perhaps when the concepts are as basic as "good" and "bad" this general acceptance is made easier. A similar instance is the word uptight, which in the 1960s enjoyed usage in the sense "excellent" alongside its now-current, negative meaning of "stiff." Reasonably good.

BAD (U2 song)

"Bad" is a song by rock band U2 and the seventh track from their 1984 album, The Unforgettable Fire. A song about heroin addiction, it is considered a fan favourite, and is one of U2's most frequently performed songs in concert. A performance of the song at 1985's Live Aid was a career breakthrough for the band.

The live version included as the opening track of the Wide Awake in America EP is frequently chosen for airplay by radio DJs ahead of the studio version. The song is featured on the trailer of Brothers and in the opening sequence of Taking Lives.

History

"Bad" began with an improvised guitar riff during a jam session at Slane Castle where U2 were recording The Unforgettable Fire. The basic track was completed in three takes. Of its immediate and live nature, U2 guitarist The Edge said "There's one moment where Larry puts down brushes and takes up the sticks and it creates this pause which has an incredibly dramatic effect." Producer Brian Eno added the sequencer arpeggios that accompany the song.

The early 1980s recession had led to high number of heroin addicts in inner city Dublin. In concert, lead vocalist Bono frequently introduced the song as a song about Dublin. The Edge and the album's producers, Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, were focused on the music and less interested in the lyrics. Bono left the song unfinished.

During a July 26, 2011 concert in Pittsburgh, Bono explained before a performance of "Bad" that the song was written for "very special man, who is here in your city, who grew up on Cedarwood Road. We wrote this song about him and we play it for him tonight." He was referring to Andy Rowen, whom the song was originally written about in 1984 and who was present at the show. Rowen is brother of Bono's Lypton Village friend Guggi and Peter Rowen, who is featured on the sleeve artwork for the band's albums Boy and War.

There are other versions of the story from Bono himself. His account from a 1987 concert in Chicago indicate "Bad" is about a friend of his who died of a heroin overdose and also about the conditions that make such events likely repeat themselves. Bono once commented in another concert (in the UK) about people lying in gutters with "needles hangin' outta their fuckin' arms while the rich live indifferently to the suffering of the less fortunate." At Eriksberg, Gothenburg in Sweden 1987, he said: "I wrote the words about a friend of mine; his name was Gareth Spaulding, and on his 21st birthday he and his friends decided to give themselves a present of enough heroin into his veins to kill him. This song is called 'Bad.'"