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

Running for president almost a decade later, he told voters that China’s rulers are “not bad folks, folks. But guess what? They’re not competition for us.”

From Washington Times

“Actually, this is not bad,” he recalled thinking.

From New York Times

“They are very driven by ideology which is nice — not bad — but the problem is, in politics, it doesn’t work like that. They need more compromise,” he said.

From Seattle Times

Although they are not bad beers, he said, they are usually seen as the “opposite of sophisticated.”

From New York Times

Those three were not bad options at shortstop, but all three are noticeably stronger elsewhere in the infield.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

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