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• feel-bad
  feel-bad

  adjective

  intended to make one feel unhappy, depressed, or dissatisfied, often to arouse one’s conscience or understanding.
• feel bad
  feel bad

  Also, feel bad about. Experience regret, sadness, embarrassment, or a similar unpleasant emotion. For example, I feel bad about not attending the funeral, or The teacher's scolding made Bobby feel bad. [First half of 1800s]

feel-bad

American  

[feel-bad] / ˈfilˈbæd /

adjective

Informal.

1. intended to make one feel unhappy, depressed, or dissatisfied, often to arouse one’s conscience or understanding.

   a feel-bad documentary about Nagasaki;

   feel-bad financial reports.

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feel bad Idioms  

1. Also, feel bad about. Experience regret, sadness, embarrassment, or a similar unpleasant emotion. For example, I feel bad about not attending the funeral, or The teacher's scolding made Bobby feel bad. [First half of 1800s]

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Etymology

Origin of feel-bad

First recorded in 1980–85; feel ( def. ) + bad ¹ ( def. ) on the model of feel-good ( def. )

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

feel-bad feel bad

I'm sure that has contributed to the general atmosphere of doom and gloom that seems to define this feel-bad era.

From Salon ● Apr. 12, 2024

Devoid of explanatory text and almost wordless, this feel-bad documentary takes a soberly immersive approach, with the cinematographer Magda Kowalczyk often using a hand-held camera to approximate a bovine point of view.

From New York Times ● Apr. 7, 2022

Let’s not mince words: The Tomorrow War is the feel-bad movie of the year.

From Slate ● Jul. 15, 2021

Feel-good shows fill a purpose — please see Yvonne Villarreal’s “I Love Lucy” suggestion below — but so do multiple seasons of feel-bad reality series that focus on the worst aspects of human behavior.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 18, 2020

The more feel-bad moments you have in a game, the less people want to play.”

From The Guardian ● Sep. 17, 2019

The answer was monitoring software for now — and no, Eaves does not feel bad about it.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 6, 2026

“They don’t feel bad about the country when told the whole story, and they’re grateful that they have access to the information.”

From Salon ● Sep. 25, 2026

“I feel bad for Tiger,” fellow golf great Jack Nicklaus told the Palm Beach Post in April.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 2, 2026

In a video recorded while he was in custody, the suspect issued a message to Tunchanok's family, saying: "I feel bad for what happened to your daughter. It was out of my control."

From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026

I tried to wish my fantasy into reality so I wouldn’t feel bad for not being there myself.

From "Flying Through Water" by Mamle Wolo

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