up to no good
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
it was, it was the police, the fire and the ambulance and it was a clip from each, it was good
Young Charlie — who was always up to no good as far as I could see — nevertheless had what Tata called ‘ a future’.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review.
Common questions
What does “up to no good” mean?
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
Is “up to no good” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.