English Explanatory Dictionary

bad cess

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. Bad luck, failure, or evil befalling.

Word forms

bad cess

Etymology

Uncertain. Occurs in print at least as early as 1831, when Samuel Lover used the expression as one already long-established. He unambiguously stated the derivation of cess in the malediction bad cess to be an abbreviation of success. OED speculated that it either was from success or from assessment meaning a military or governmental exaction.

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