bad news bears

proverb

Said of someone or something that will bring disaster or bad fortune to one.

“I could tell by looking at him that he was bad news bears, so I avoided him for the rest of the school year.”

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Meanings

proverb
  1. UScapitalizedidiomaticsometimesSaid of someone or something that will bring disaster or bad fortune to one.

    I could tell by looking at him that he was bad news bears, so I avoided him for the rest of the school year.

    1 more example

    When the actors admitted to not having seen the movie and even predicted it wouldn't be critically well-received, we knew it was going to be bad. And then we knew it was really bad news bears when its own director tweeted this.

    2015 August 14, Kristen Yoonsoo Kim, “This On-Set Fight Between Miles Teller and Josh Trank Is Probably More Exciting Than 'Fantastic Four'”, in Complex, retrieved 25 Nov 2015

Origin

Presumably a reference to the 1976 sports comedy film The Bad News Bears.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

bad news bears. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bad%20news%20bears

MLA

“bad news bears.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bad%20news%20bears. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “bad news bears,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bad%20news%20bears.

Source: bad news bears on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.