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

What surprised me—delighted me, in fact—is that this ended up not only being not bad but actually veering toward good.

From Slate ● Sep. 3, 2026

That’s not bad news for growth stocks, but value names historically have delivered more consistent outperformance.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 25, 2026

His current haul of 18 - seven gold, four silver and a further seven bronze - is not bad going.

From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026

The Sparks are half a game outside the final playoff spot, not bad given how poor some of their performances have been.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 11, 2026

These are not bad things to do together.

From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas

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Related Words

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

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