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Bad Thing

   Also found in: Wikipedia 0.03 sec.
(jargon)Bad Thing - (From the 1930 Sellar & Yeatman parody "1066 And All That") Something that can't possibly result in improvement of the subject. This term is always capitalised, as in "Replacing all of the 9600-baud modems with bicycle couriers would be a Bad Thing".

Opposite: Good Thing.

British correspondents confirm that Bad Thing and Good Thing (and probably therefore Right Thing and Wrong Thing) come from the book referenced in the etymology, which discusses rulers who were Good Kings but Bad Things. This has apparently created a mainstream idiom on the British side of the pond.


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? Mentioned in ? References in classic literature
 
It would not be a bad thing for her to be very much in love with a proper object.
Emma by Austen, Jane View in context
Thedora declares that it would not be a bad thing if we were to remain in this tenement, since if we left it suspicions would arise, and our enemies might take it into their heads to look for us.
Poor Folk by Dostoyevsky, Fyodor View in context
To represent a bad thing in its least offensive light is, doubtless, the most agreeable course for a writer of fiction to pursue; but is it the most honest, or the safest?
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Bronte, Anne View in context
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