Advertisement

Advertisement

View synonyms for bad blood

bad blood

noun

  1. unfriendly or hostile relations; enmity; hostility; animosity:

    When the territory was being settled there was bad blood between the farmers and the ranchers.



bad blood

noun

  1. a feeling of intense hatred or hostility; enmity
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


Discover More

Word History and Origins

Origin of bad blood1

First recorded in 1815–25
Discover More

Idioms and Phrases

Anger or hostility between persons or groups, as in There's been bad blood between the two families for years . This term is based on the old association with blood and emotion, particularly anger. Versions such as ill blood preceded it; Charles Lamb was among the first to use the idiom in its current form in an 1823 essay.
Discover More

Example Sentences

Why do you think everyone loves to seize on any hint of discord or bad blood between you guys?

King reminisced about his convention and was astounded at how little bad-blood lingered.

The result created quite a bit of “animosity and bad blood.”

No pasty-faced legal adventurer is going to cause bad blood between the Warners and the Marxes.

There has been bad blood between Buddhists and Muslims in Burma for many years.

There had been bad blood between the captain and the mate, and Fox did not wish to go.

They sent threatening letters to Branson, and cut timber on Dow's claim; and this made bad blood.

Yet now whole trains would strive, often with bad blood, for the mastery of the trail, one attempting to pass the other.

They decided to write off the past as fair fight and no bad blood, and start over again.

There is bad blood between Avalon boatmen and these foreign market fishermen.

Advertisement

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.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement