bearish

adjective

bear·​ish ˈber-ish 

1

: resembling a bear in build or in roughness, gruffness, or surliness

a bearish man

2

a

: marked by, tending to cause, or fearful of falling prices (as in a stock market)

bearish investors

b

: pessimistic

bearishly adverb

bearishness noun

Synonyms

• defeatist
• despairing
• downbeat
• hopeless
• pessimistic

Examples of bearish in a Sentence

The market has been bearish lately.

some studio execs are bearish about this summer's box office

Recent Examples on the Web

Now this bearish, slightly boorish artist is just another divorced guy living in the city, marinating in booze and self-pity. —David Fear, Rolling Stone, 11 Aug. 2024

The range of this faintly bearish trend tells us there is a lot of uncertainty in the market, and uncertainty is never a good thing. —Clem Chambers, Forbes, 16 Aug. 2024

Billionaire investor Leon Cooperman is more bearish on the stock market than the consensus view on Wall Street, saying the widening U.S. fiscal deficit could become a crisis down the road. —Yun Li, CNBC, 15 Aug. 2024

Commodities from copper and gold to crude oil plunged as a global financial meltdown broadened, with traders rushing to cash out of profitable trades and place fresh bearish bets across industrial raw-material markets. —Mark Burton, Fortune, 5 Aug. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1607, in the meaning defined at sense 1