bad news

American

noun

Informal.

an annoying, disturbing, unwelcome thing or person; nuisance; troublemaker.

bad news British

noun

slang someone or something regarded as undesirable

he's bad news around here

"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

bad news Idioms

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]
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.

That’s bad news for consumers, who are ending up paying more for less.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 30, 2026

The bad news for Arsenal is that the title race remains in Manchester City's control.

From BBC • Apr. 29, 2026

Teammates didn’t know if it was good news or bad news as they saw his tears.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 29, 2026

That relationship means anything that’s bad news for OpenAI is bad for Oracle too.

From Barron's • Apr. 28, 2026

Something they thought was bad news was in that tree.

From "Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer" by Kelly Jones

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