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

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

But if the growing schism between the tech industry and the broad public is generating bad blood, it also opens a path to reforms that would have been unthinkable a few months ago.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 15, 2026

If there was any bad blood between Paxton and Middleton over these clashes, it seems to have dissipated in the years since.

From Salon • May 23, 2026

Incoming Hungarian leader Peter Magyar on Wednesday pays his first visit to EU chiefs in Brussels since his election win, looking to turn the page on the bad blood of nationalist Viktor Orban's tenure.

From Barron's • Apr. 29, 2026

“O! I don’t know about bad blood,” returned Mr. Wemmick; “there’s not much bad blood about. They’ll do it, if there’s anything to be got by it.”

From "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens

Related Words

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