Green’s Dictionary of Slang

to put someone at a disadvantage.

1900

Ade More Fables in Sl. (1960) 103: She turned the Liquid Orbs on him and had him to the Bad.

(US campus) a statement of apology: my fault, ‘sorry’.

1986		Eble Campus Sl. Mar.
1996		P. Beatty White Boy Shuffle 72: My bad, I should’ve known.
1999		T. Parker South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut [film script] dr doctor: Let’s get it out of there! We need to zap this, quick! [opening microwave] Who’s making a potato? assistant: My bad, sir! I missed lunch.
2002		J. Lerner You Got Nothing Coming 167: C-Note’s Rasta dreadlocks hit the concrete floor — hard. [...] ‘My bad,’ says the Bone.
2006		G. Malkani Londonstani (2007) 15: Ah, sorry, man, my bad.
2015		P. Beatty Sellout (2016) 18: It’s a guilt that has obligated me to mutter ‘My bad’ for [...] every politician under federal investigation, every bug-eyed and Rastus-voiced comedian, and every black film made since 1968.
2020		S.A. Crosby Blacktop Wasteland 54: ‘Aw shit, man [...] My bad’.

1. (also to bad) in debt, ‘in the red’.

1816		‘Quiz’ Grand Master viii 25: I’ve really to the bad Some thousands of rupees to add [F&H].
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 86/1: This took away our profit, and though we had the best rush of customers among the ‘cross cribs,’ we soon found that we were going to bad.
1884		Pall Mall Gazette 6 Feb. 4: He was between £70 and £80 to the bad [F&H].
1894		G.A. Sala Things I Have Seen I 120: I was no less than seventy pounds to the bad.
1899–1900		C.L. Cullen Tales of the Ex-Tanks 340: All of them won, which put the bank a bit over $12,000 to the bad.
1905		‘Hugh McHugh’ Get Next 24: ‘One hundred and sixty bucks to the bad for mine,’ laughed Bunch.
1915		R. Lardner ‘Alibi Ike’ in Coll. Short Stories (1941) 42: Along in the fifth we was one run to the bad.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 601: For which and further reasons he felt it was interest and duty even to wait on and profit by the unlookedfor occasion, though why, he could not exactly tell, being, as it was, already several shillings to the bad.
1940		P. Larkin letter 20 Dec. in Thwaite Sel. Letters (1992) 7: Am attempting to live on 8d a day till end of vacation. At present am 8½ to the bad. You see, beer is 8d a day.
1954		K. Amis letter 3 Jan. in Leader (2000) 356: Then I go out without the wine and 27/- to the bad.

2. out of order, lit. and fig.

1877		J. Greenwood Dick Temple I 220: If you’d ha’ guessed a inch wider o’ the mark, it would have been a inch to the bad.
1899		W.J. Kountz Billy Baxter’s Letters 33: She must have taken a foolish powder [...] as she was clear to the bad.
1901		‘Hugh McHugh’ Down the Line 37: Buck is a sweller. He thinks he strikes twelve on all occasions, but his clock is all to the bad.
1903		Inter Ocean (Chicago) 25 Jan. 34/7: We just observed that you were to the bad [i.e. drunk] last night.
1906		E. Dyson Fact’ry ’Ands 57: I’ve just been weighed on the station, ’n’ I’m arf a stone t’ the bad again.
1912		Van Loan ‘McCluskey’s Prodigal’ in Ten-Thousand-Dollar Arm 259: He’s away to the bad on his control.
1920		F. Packard White Moll 67: Where’s the lamp? This cursed candle’s put enough to the bad already!