Meaning & use
make someone look bad
Last updated
Meanings
phrasefixed phrase
to cause other people to have a worse opinion of someone, often by your behavior or by revealing something.
Grammar: Use it with a person as the object: make someone look bad. You can also say make yourself look bad.
Patterns
- make someone look bad
- make yourself look bad
- make someone look bad in front of someone
He arrived late and made his whole team look bad.
Don't bring up her mistake in the meeting; it will make her look bad.
phrasefixed phrase
to seem less able or less honest than someone else, especially in a competition or comparison.
Grammar: Often used with in front of or compared to: make someone look bad compared to someone.
Patterns
- make someone look bad compared to someone
- make someone look bad in front of someone
Her calm answer made the other candidate look bad.
If you finish first, it might make your classmates look bad.
Common combinations
- make someone look bad in front of others
- She didn't want to make him look bad in front of his friends.
- make yourself look bad
- By arguing with the teacher, you made yourself look bad.
- make someone look bad by comparison
- His hard work made the rest of us look bad by comparison.
Synonyms and how they differ
- show someone up
- This means to make someone seem foolish by doing better than them, often on purpose.
- embarrass someone
- This focuses on making someone feel ashamed, not just on other people's opinion.
Opposites
Practice
Which sentence uses the phrase correctly?
Choose one answer.
The correct order is make + person + look bad; 'badly' would describe how he looks, not the effect on his reputation.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “make someone look bad”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.