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Synonyms

not bad

Idioms  

  1. Also, not half bad;; not too shabby. Fairly good, as in Not bad, said the conductor, but we need to play the scherzo again, or The movie wasn't half bad, but Jerry wanted to go home, or Our garden's not too bad this year, or How are things going?—Not too shabby. All of the terms involving bad, which imply that something is less bad than it might be, date from the mid-1700s. The last variant, using shabby in the sense of “inferior,” is slang of the late 1900s.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

"That's not bad, in times like these, believe me."

From Barron's • Apr. 1, 2026

That’s not bad, and represents a 45% savings vs. a comparable gas-electric hybrid like the Hyundai Tucson or Toyota RAV4.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 13, 2026

Two scenes end with a fart joke; only one really lets him sing and dance, and he’s not bad.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 26, 2026

"I know these people in the neighborhood, they're not bad people, so why would they be afraid? They're only coming after the bad guys."

From BBC • Jan. 31, 2026

Most of their clothes were kind of grayish anyway—from age, not bad laundry choices.

From "Gregor the Overlander" by Suzanne Collins

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.