Dictionary

in bad odor en · ADJ

Etymology

Compare odour of sanctity.

Meanings

1. (followed by with, idiomatic, often) Regarded with disapproval; in a situation of being disliked; shunned.
   • […] Mosk could not pay his rent and was already in bad odour with his landlord, […] 1900, Fergus Hume, “On Saturday Night”, in Bishop Pendle: Or, The Bishop’s Secret, Chicago, Ill.; New York, N.Y.: Rand, McNally & Company, →OCLC, page 62:
   • [T]he public looks at them as just a bunch of CEOs — a group in bad odor. 2002 July 22, Bill Saporito, “Wall Street's Verdict”, in Time, retrieved 27 Sep 2013:
   • New Hampshire was in bad odor with the English government; but the farmers could endure that with equanimity. 1898, Julian Hawthorne, chapter 7, in The History of the United States:
   • So in conversing with men, women, and children, I gradually found out that Tim Hibblethwaite was in bad odor, and that he held himself doggedly aloof from all. 1877, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Surly Tim:
   • For the political right, naturally eager to put the left in bad odor, the naming frenzy was a bonanza. 1993 May 8, Russell Baker, “Observer: What's in a Naming?”, in New York Times, retrieved 27 Sep 2013:

Forms

Antonyms

in good odor

Relateds

bad books

Synonyms

on the outs · frowned upon

Translations (4)

fi huonossa maineessa (regarded with disapproval, shunned) · mi waingaio (regarded with disapproval, shunned) · fi paheksuttu (regarded with disapproval, shunned) · pl źle widziany (regarded with disapproval, shunned)