bad blood

American  

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.

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bad blood British  

noun

1. a feeling of intense hatred or hostility; enmity

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bad blood Idioms  

1. 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.

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Etymology

Origin of bad blood

First recorded in 1815–25

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

bad blood

The negotiations have been so bruising that bad blood has built up.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 25, 2026

Whitaker said he believed the bad blood was behind the alliance, claiming that "those days are past us".

From Barron's ● Jul. 1, 2026

The answers may avert any potential bad blood between your mother and her siblings — or could make their blood boil.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 17, 2026

Barnes & Noble was turning a page on the chain’s history of declining sales, but recent comments have stirred bad blood for the bookseller.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 20, 2026

Some of the bad blood centered, improbably, on the most gentlemanly of individuals in either shell house.

From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown

Related Words

• acrimony
• animosity
• animus
• antagonism
• bitterness
• distrust
• enmity
• hatred
• hostility
• ill will
• nastiness
• rancor
• resentment