give bad marks to

Judge unsatisfactory, as in They gave bad marks to the President's program. This expression transfers the marking used in evaluating schoolwork to other endeavors. [Late 1800s]

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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.

“This is about being afraid to give bad marks to students because they might go to their favorite YouTuber with a little bit of personal information about you that could be used to dox you.”