bad-mouth

verb

ˈbad-ˌmau̇th How to pronounce bad-mouth (audio)
-ˌmau̇t͟h
bad-mouthed; bad-mouthing; bad-mouths
Synonyms of bad-mouthnext

transitive verb

: to criticize severely

Synonyms of bad-mouth

Relevance
See All Synonyms & Antonyms in Thesaurus

Examples of bad-mouth in a Sentence

she promptly bad-mouthed that awful movie to everyone she knew
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
He also bad-mouths my son’s wife. — Abigail Van Buren, Boston Herald, 8 June 2026 At one point, Brown stepped away from the set, and co-stars Antoni Porowski, Tan France and Jonathan van Ness began bad-mouthing him behind his back, while his mom heard the whole conversation, according to TMZ. — Joseph Wilkinson, New York Daily News, 21 Jan. 2026 Most of the people who were bad-mouthing Titanic had not seen so much as a minute of film. — Stacy Lambe, PEOPLE, 22 Oct. 2025 This is not some glossy revisionist history of a person’s life; the man had a beautiful soul who didn’t have it in him to bad-mouth a cockroach. — Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 11 Sep. 2025 See All Example Sentences for bad-mouth

Word History

First Known Use

1933, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of bad-mouth was in 1933

Browse Nearby Words

badminton
bad-mouth
bad name
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Bad-mouth.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bad-mouth. Accessed 11 Jul. 2026.

Copy Citation

Kids Definition

bad-mouth

verb
-ˌmau̇th, 
-ˈmaut͟h
: to say bad things about
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of xeric

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Is that lie 'bald-faced' or 'bold-faced'?

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?

Commonly Misspelled Words

How to Use Em Dashes (—), En Dashes (–) , and Hyphens (-)
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

The Longest Long Words List

One-Word Oxymorons: Bittersweet, Spendthrift, and More

Ten Words Ending with a Silent ‘T’

The Words of the Week - Jul 10
See More

Popular

See More

Is that lie 'bald-faced' or 'bold-faced'?

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

The Longest Long Words List
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
banana-mirrored
Contradictory Words Quiz Pick out which word means one thing…and the opp...
See All