bum rap

Related to bum rap: out of whack, roughshod, rap over the knuckles, taking the rap

bum rap

1. noun An unfair accusation, punishment, or reputation. Tommy was sent to jail on a bum rap because of his prior criminal history, but we know he didn't rob that bank—he was with us the day it happened! He didn't get elected because he got such a bum rap from the mainstream media during his campaign.
2. verb To speak badly, or perhaps lie, about someone. Often hyphenated. Oh, that guy is always bum-rapping—you can't trust him.
See also: bum, rap

bum-rap

To speak badly, or perhaps lie, about someone. If you keep bum-rapping about people like that, you're going to have a hard time making friends.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

bum rap

A false accusation or conviction; also, unfair criticism or action. For example, He claimed he was in prison on a bum rap, or The theater critics gave her last play a bum rap. This expression originated in the 1920s as underworld slang, and by the mid-1900s it was also used figuratively for other kinds of injustice.
See also: bum, rap
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

bum rap

1. n. a false criminal charge. (Underworld. The same as bad rap.) This is a bum rap, and you know it.
2. and bum-rap tv. to talk ill about someone; to accuse someone of something falsely. You’re always bum-rapping your car!
See also: bum, rap

bum-rap

verb
See bum rap
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions
See also:
  • angle
  • angling
  • high
  • high, wide, and handsome
  • wear (one's) apron high
  • beater
  • fire and brimstone
  • bummer
References in periodicals archive
Lee loves her town and that she is concerned about its businesses being hurt by the bum rap the town sometimes gets.
"I think spinel has gotten a bum rap because synthetic colourless spinel was historically being used as a diamond simulant.
At one point, Lippe tells Joan, a fellow attendee, that "insurance agents" get a bum rap and relays how an "agent" worked on the front line to help restore lives after a massive flood.
This is a bum rap. King Schools goes to a lot of effort to use technology to make our courses intuitive and easy to navigate, and to serve up questions related to what the customer just studied right after each segment.
On Monday, former President Bill Clinton told CNN Obama was getting "a bum rap." The failed well is a "geological monster" and if efforts to cap the leak should fail, the U.S.
This, I believe, is a bum rap for authentic religion, which I would describe in a phrase as "within me, and between me and thee."
Bury Vista, roll a lucky 7 <p>Microsoft will spend less time trying to convince people that Vista is a good operating system with a bum rap and more time moving on to the slick UI enhancements and IT benefits of Windows 7.
Fleischer points out that he, of all people, never expected to defend reporters, but he feels they are getting a bum rap for allegedly not asking the tough questions before the invasion -- and he sides with those, such as David Gregory and Charles Gibson, who have strongly defended themselves.
"I think they're getting a bum rap on some of the things being said about them," Lee said.
It discusses what's important and what's not in the scheme of realizing spirituality in everyday living, and it chapters are as zany as 'Are Corporate Witches Getting a Bum Rap?' to 'Can you Blackberry Your Way to Happiness?' For a blend of everyday living advice, humor, and spiritual insights, this can't be beat and its title alone will have any general-interest public library lending collection excited.
"I'm just happy that they're doing it and very proud of New Jersey because it gets a bum rap sometimes."
JOEY Barton has been given a bum rap after his cheeky celebrations against Everton saw him slapped with an FA charge.
(For a refutation of von Munchhausen's possibly undeserved reputation, see Patterson's historical review entitled, "The Munchausen syndrome: Baron yon Munchhausen has taken a bum rap." (4))
Distractibility is another trait that often gets a bum rap, according to Dr.
The news (and bad news, I suppose, for the apologists of solipsistic pen-and-ink fantasies and School of Tuymans oils, or whatever other back-to-art-basics merchandise fills the stalls these days) is that Art Fair Art (and, more important, the post-Pop performative efforts of which it is a subset) evinces, contra the bad-boy bum rap, a measure of complexity and contradiction.