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Synonyms

not bad

Idioms  

  1. Also, not half bad;; not too shabby. Fairly good, as in Not bad, said the conductor, but we need to play the scherzo again, or The movie wasn't half bad, but Jerry wanted to go home, or Our garden's not too bad this year, or How are things going?—Not too shabby. All of the terms involving bad, which imply that something is less bad than it might be, date from the mid-1700s. The last variant, using shabby in the sense of “inferior,” is slang of the late 1900s.

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 not bad, and represents a 45% savings vs. a comparable gas-electric hybrid like the Hyundai Tucson or Toyota RAV4.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 13, 2026

Two scenes end with a fart joke; only one really lets him sing and dance, and he’s not bad.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 26, 2026

Current deals bring it down to $3/month – not bad for Swiss-level protection.

From Salon • Feb. 11, 2026

You’re not bad parents if you put this money toward retirement, and expect your children to pay for their own college education.

From MarketWatch • Dec. 24, 2025

“Varney’s not bad, Bull, and you’ve got no choice. You have to get along with him. He outranks you.”

From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy

Definitions 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.