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

But as 2025 approaches, the overall market will most likely be in surplus, and may trigger bearish sentiment for much of the first half of the new year. —Gaurav Sharma, Forbes, 13 Dec. 2024

This potential bearish signal has only happened in this manner one other time, back in September of 2001. —Jeff Kilburg, CNBC, 13 Dec. 2024

That’s after investors started out the year rather bearish expecting only a 2% gain, according to a February poll from Reuters. —Paolo Confino, Fortune, 20 Nov. 2024

In my advance/decline analysis, a bearish or negative divergence would not be confirmed and new action not be warranted unless the A/D lines dropped below the prior lows. —Tom Aspray, Forbes, 1 Dec. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1607, in the meaning defined at sense 1