with bad grace

Idioms

Reluctantly, rudely, as in He finally agreed to share the cost, but with bad grace. [Mid-1700s] Also see with good grace.

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.

Folding the wings and shutting his eyes tightly, he shouted out with bad grace, “I promise never to kill or eat another mouse or shrew of any type as long as I live, so there!”

From Literature

More often than not the merchant "got away with it"—or, if not, made good with bad grace, in which case the customer was satisfied.

From Project Gutenberg

Bad′ness.—Bad blood, angry feeling; Bad coin, false coin; Bad debts, debts that cannot be recovered; Bad shot, a wrong guess.—To go bad, to decay; To go to the bad, to go to ruin; To the bad, to a bad condition: in deficit.—With bad grace, unwillingly.

From Project Gutenberg

The three plotters accepted their defeat with bad grace.

From Project Gutenberg

They met this news with bad grace, but followed the directions.

From Project Gutenberg

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023