Halfway decent is an informal English phrase with two related but distinct flavours. Used literally, it means barely adequate — something that meets only a minimum acceptable standard. But in American idiomatic use, it often flips slightly positive, meaning genuinely good or better than expected — as in 'he's halfway decent at cooking' meaning he's actually pretty good. Context and tone determine which reading applies. The phrase is conversational in register and widely understood across English-speaking regions.
After years of eating campus food, any halfway decent home-cooked meal felt like a revelation.
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(US, idiomatic) Good - better than expected.
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No more than adequate.
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Regional slang from around the English-speaking world — British, Australian, Irish, Caribbean, Nigerian, Filipino, AAVE, and the hyphenated-English dialects that make the internet sound local.
See all Regional & Other slang on Slangora.