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.
Interest rates have been raised for the first time in more than three years - and it could be good and bad news for you.
From BBC ● Nov. 5, 2026
"If you put something containing cadmium in your mouth, or indeed if you swallow it, that is really bad news," he says.
From BBC ● Nov. 3, 2026
The companies are essentially doubling down on AI bets, making AI stocks even more volatile because good news is better for them and bad news worse.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 1, 2026
The bad news was that he would have only four lines and his character wouldn’t have a name.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 28, 2026
The most striking change in his personality was his volatility: good news triggered uncontained outbursts of joy, often extinguished only through increasingly acrobatic bouts of physical exercise, while bad news plunged him into inconsolable desolation.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
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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.
