not bad
134
3.0
- idiom
- Informal
:
no está mal
- She thought the score was not bad, considering the difficulty of the exam.
But my cousin, my friend said not bad, not that bad.
- But my cousin, my friend said not bad, not that bad.
- This food is like top notch, not bad New York, not bad.
- No, of course not Bad again, bad day.
Examples
-
This is a team that's not bad in their field of sport.
-
This restaurant has a not bad selection of vegetarian dishes.
-
Had a little bit of damage, not bad, flowers look great.
-
All right, not bad, not bad at all.
-
Not bad, not bad, not bad at all.
-
Not as good as you, but not bad at all.
Fiction book (1990) -
This eyeshadow is not bad, not bad at all.
-
The show was not bad, kind of offbeat a little.
-
In the morning, the food isn't bad with porridge and bread to choose from.
Fiction book (1992) -
Not bad for a has-been and a couple of never-will-bes, huh?
Synonyms
∞
1.0
Very good or excellent in quality
∞
1.0
Very good and better than most similar things
815
3.3
Very strong and often causing great damage
626
1.9
Very good and impressive, making you feel pleased
407
7.9
Used informally to mean completely or very much
188
7.0
Very good and impressive
77
7.5
Very good and impressive at a skill
66
7.3
Very good and enjoyable
60
8.8
Very stylish and liked by many people
42
6.0
Being clever and useful, often small and attractive
24
6.7
Very good and impressive
24
6.9
Very good and pleasant, with no problems
16
7.8
Very good and of high quality
14
7.4
Better than you expected
8
7.8
Very good and impressive
7
6.9
Very good and impressive
5
8.8
To say that something is very good or pleasant, often in a sarcastic way to mean the opposite
4
7.9
Very good and impressive
3
7.9
Very good and impressive
2
2.8
Very impressive and exciting
2
9.9
Very good or excellent in old, joking speech
Very good and impressive
Very good and enjoyable
Very good and enjoyable
Very good, enjoyable, and attractive in a lively way
Very good and large, often used for a meal or party
A very successful time, for example a year
Very good and impressive
People use it in Britain to say something is very good
Antonyms
How Good
Surface Forms
Morphology
not + bad
The meaning arises transparently from combining 'not' (negation) with 'bad' (negative adjective), so learners can infer a positive evaluation by negating 'bad'. However, the conventional use as understated praise or even strong approval (litotes/pragmatic strengthening) is a pragmatic inference rather than a fully predictable compositional meaning, so the exact force is not guaranteed for a B1 learner.
Etymology
Not bad comes from a polite way of saying something is good: people avoid strong praise and say not bad instead of saying 'good'. So not bad often means 'quite good' or 'better than expected' today.