bad news
Americannoun
noun
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An unwelcome thing or person, trouble. For example, That fire was bad news; we were underinsured for the damage , or No one wants Mary on the board—she's bad news . This term transfers literal bad news—the report of an unhappy recent event—to an unwanted or undesirable individual or circumstance. [ Slang ; 1920s]
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The amount charged for something, as in Waiter, bring our check—I want to see the bad news . [ Slang ; 1920s]
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.
The 49ers have a rock-solid run defense, and that’s bad news for a Falcons team that wants to control the game on the ground.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 22, 2026
The lessons from historical capital-spending booms offer both good and bad news, writes columnist James Mackintosh.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 18, 2026
Just like then, the bad news kept coming, but prices stopped falling.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 16, 2026
AI stocks have been hit by worries about Anthropic's IPO but it isn't all bad news.
From Barron's ● Oct. 16, 2026
They still tried to make bad news sound like good news—they were very good at that.
From "An Elephant in the Garden" by Michael Morpurgo
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
