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Glite Dictionary
up to no good

up to no good

19 7.4
Acting in a secret or suspicious way to do something wrong
  • idiom
  • Informal
translation icon : tramar
  • It seemed obvious to everyone that he was up to no good when he sneaked into the garage at midnight.
  • knew they were up to no good
  • thought they were up to no good
  • said they were up to no good

Seems like he is up to no good and the cat knows it.

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Examples

Synonyms

deceitful
vsup to no good
31 5.0

Acting in a dishonest way to make people believe something untrue

is broader, covering suspicious or mischievous behaviour not only deliberate lies
up to something
vsup to no good
  • Informal
19 7.0

Doing something secret that may be wrong or harmful

is broader, describing behaviour that seems dishonest or suspicious generally
conniving
vsup to no good
8 8.0

Someone who secretly plans to do something dishonest or harmful

is about observable suspicious or dishonest behaviour rather than secret planning

Antonyms

honest
∞ 1.0

Truthful and fair, not cheating or lying

upright
15 4.0

Behaving honestly and following strong moral rules

How Suspicious

sly
31 4.9
up to no good
  • Informal
19 7.4
mischievous
19 3.5

Surface Forms

up to no good positive

Morphology

up + to + no + good

The parts 'no good' clearly convey 'bad' and the prepositional pattern 'up to' can be interpreted as 'engaged in' or 'doing', so a learner who knows the words can often infer that someone is involved in bad/mischievous activity. However, the collocation 'up to no good' is a fixed colloquial phrasing and the specific sense ('behaving suspiciously or mischievously') depends on idiomatic use of 'up to', so it is not fully predictable without prior exposure.

Etymology

The idiom up to no good comes from the simple picture of someone being up to something, meaning they are busy doing it, and that thing being no good or bad. So, if someone is up to no good, they are 'doing something bad or suspicious'.