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.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

not bad

And the Dodgers relievers, within the same constraints, have a 3.83 ERA — not bad, but not in the top 10 either.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 9, 2026

Not a victory—but definitely not bad for four years off.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 30, 2026

Current deals bring VPN Plus down to $2.99/month on the 2-year plan – not bad for Swiss-level protection.

From Salon ● Jun. 2, 2026

"I'm going to say it's not bad at all. This is going to change my life to the good, for sure," said Gkolomeev.

From BBC ● May 25, 2026

It felt weird to see him holding it; not bad necessarily, just weird, out of place.

From "The Miseducation of Cameron Post" by emily m. danforth

Related Words

• adequate
• allowable
• bearable
• decent
• livable
• presentable
• respectable
• satisfactory
• sufficient
• sustainable