mixed feelings

mixed feelings

Positive and negative emotions that are experienced simultaneously and which are often in conflict with one another. I've got mixed feelings about starting college this fall: on the one hand, I can't wait to start the next chapter in my education, but, on the other, I will be so sad leaving my friends and family behind.
See also: feeling, mixed
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

*mixed feelings (about someone or something)

uncertainty about someone or something. (*Typically: get ~; have ~; give someone ~.) I have mixed feelings about Bob. Sometimes I think he likes me; other times I don't. I have mixed feelings about my trip to England. I love the people, but the climate upsets me.
See also: feeling, mixed
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

mixed feelings

A partly positive and partly negative reaction to something, as in I have mixed feelings about this trip; I'd love to go but don't want to ride in that tiny car .
See also: feeling, mixed
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
See also:
  • mixed emotions
  • have mixed feelings
  • have mixed feelings (about something)
  • laugh out (of) the other side of (one's) mouth
  • laugh out of the other side of mouth
  • laugh out of the other side of one's mouth
  • laugh out of the other side of face and laugh out of the other ...
  • laugh out (of) the other side of (one's) face
  • raise the temperature
  • temperature
References in classic literature
So the Sheriff was dismissed, with very mixed feelings, and went his way home to Nottingham town.
He loved Paul of Tarsus, liked St John, hated St James as much as he dared, and regarded with mixed feelings Timothy, Titus, and Philemon.
The young Englishman had heard the sound of Tarzan's body crashing through the tree to the ground and the commotion in the village which immediately followed, and now, as he stood with his back against the wall of the hut, he looked upon the fellow-prisoner that the blacks carried in and laid upon the floor with mixed feelings of surprise and compassion.
Presenting a written order to the policeman in charge of the gate, they were forthwith admitted within the sacred precincts The closely packed spectators, regarding them with mixed feelings of envy and curiosity, wondered who they might be.
With mixed feelings, she seated herself at a little distance from the numbers round the instrument, to listen.
Plornish, after a little conversation, in which he blended his former duty as a Collegian with his present privilege as a humble outside friend, qualified again by his low estate as a plasterer, took his leave; making the tour of the prison before he left, and looking on at a game of skittles with the mixed feelings of an old inhabitant who had his private reasons for believing that it might be his destiny to come back again.
You will conceive, Monsieur, with what mixed feelings I descend next morning.
She held out her hand to him, and with a mixed feeling of estrangement and tenderness pressed her lips to his forehead as he stooped to kiss her hand.
He said: 'We are doing it with mixed feelings in the sense that only recently, we could have that marvellous celebration of three years without new cases of polio in Nigeria.
ians Washington Swiss tennis player Roger Federer, who has played four Miami Open finals and won three, all on the old Crandon Park courts in Key Biscayne, said that he has "mixed feelings" with this year's move to the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens.
While most lauded Justice Khosa for his address on Thursday, users on social media had mixed feelings about the transition in the country's top court.
Well, apparently the Christmas spirit's helped Metcalfe untangle his mixed feelings about doing a holiday-themed film for his Hallmark series because he tweeted on Tuesday about wanting to do just that.
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia's (UKM) entry requirements for new students have sparked mixed feelings on social media.
Poet and comedian Pam Ayres has mixed feelings about her big break on Opportunity Knocks.
Lynden Gooch admits he has mixed feelings about Sunderland's season, but has given the biggest hint yet that he will stay at the club next season.