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bad mouth

 - 4 dictionary results

bad-mouth

  [bad-mouth or, sometimes, -mouth]
Use bad mouth in a Sentence
–verb (used with object), -mouthed, -mouth⋅ing.
Slang. to speak critically and often disloyally of; disparage: Why do you bad-mouth your family so much?
Also, badmouth.

Origin:
1935–40; orig. a curse, spell (the sense recorded in Gullah); cf. Vai (Mande language of Liberia and Sierra Leone) dà nyà mà curse, lit., bad mouth

Related forms:
bad-mouther, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Slang Dictionary
bad-mouth

  1. tv.
    to speak ill of someone or something. (See also dirty mouth; poor-mouth.) : I wish you would stop bad-mouthing my car.
  2. n.
    someone who speaks ill of someone or something. : Harry is such a bad-mouth!
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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Word Origin & History

bad-mouth  (v.)
"abuse someone verbally," 1941, probably ultimately from noun phrase bad mouth (1835), in black Eng., "a curse, spell," translating an idiom found in African and West Indian languages.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Idioms & Phrases

bad mouth

Disparage or criticize unduly, malign, as in Why do you constantly bad mouth your colleagues? This term is believed to be of African origin, where the phrase bad mouth signifies a curse or evil spell. [1930s]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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