dark side of

the dark side of (someone or something)

The negative or troubled part of someone or something that is usually concealed. My mom is always sweet to my friends, but I've seen the dark side of her enough to know mean she can be. Shady deals like this are the dark side of the music industry, unfortunately.
See also: dark, of, side
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

dark side of someone or something

Fig. the negative and often hidden aspect of someone or something. I had never seen the dark side of Mary before, and I have to tell you that I was horrified when she lost her temper.
See also: dark, of, side
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • the dark side of (someone or something)
  • expose (someone, something, or oneself) to (someone or something)
  • expose to
  • funeral
  • it's someone's funeral
  • be (someone's) funeral
  • lost without
  • lost without (someone or something)
  • candy-coat
  • snipe at (someone or something)
References in classic literature
"As for the dark side of the prospect, I need not enlarge on it.
The sun hides not the ocean, which is the dark side of this earth, and which is two thirds of this earth.
He made no move towards them, but waited patiently on the dark side of the street, until they were tired of strolling backwards and forwards and walked away in company.
( Advancing.) Aye, harpooneer, thy race is the undeniable dark side of mankind --devilish dark at that.
I was on the dark side of the road, in the thick shadow of some garden trees, when I stopped to look round.
'I had a friend once, who had heard so much of the dark side of this city and its ways, that he wouldn't have confided himself alone by night with two people who had an interest in getting him under the ground--my faith!
It was on the dark side of twilight when we got to Bistritz, which is a very interesting old place.
That being now deprived of all the fancied felicity which he enjoyed in the full exercise of worldly pleasures, he said he was at leisure to look upon the dark side of them, where he found all manner of deformity; and was now convinced that virtue only makes a man truly wise, rich, and great, and preserves him in the way to a superior happiness in a future state; and in this, he said, they were more happy in their banishment than all their enemies were, who had the full possession of all the wealth and power they had left behind them.
That minute did more for Polly than many sermons, or the wisest books, for it brought her face to face with bitter truths, showed her the dark side of life, and seemed to blow away her little vanities, her frivolous desires, like a wintry wind, that left a wholesome atmosphere behind.
In tracing out affairs for which John's fictitious death was to be considered in any way responsible, they used a very broad and free construction; regarding, for instance, the dolls' dressmaker as having a claim on their protection, because of her association with Mrs Eugene Wrayburn, and because of Mrs Eugene's old association, in her turn, with the dark side of the story.
There were traces of privation and suffering--almost of despair --in his lank and care-worn countenance; he felt his poverty, for he shrank to the dark side of the staircase as Mr.
Could Rey be about to turn to the Dark Side of the Force?
PINK FLOYD: THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON This is a perfect album.
Critique: An inherently fascinating and original novel by an author with a genuine flair for originality and a storytelling style that engages and holds the reader from first page to last, "The Light from the Dark Side of the Moon" by Norman G.
"The Dark Side of Isaac Newton: Science's Greatest Fraud?" by Nick Kollerstrom doesn't go looking at unpublished alchemical musings as is nowadays fashionable, rather it sticks to the historical record.