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bad news

bad news {n.}, {slang}

An event, thing, or person which is disagreeable or an unpleasant surprise.

What's the new professor like? — He's all bad news to me.

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Source: A Dictionary of American Idioms

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follow up

[follow up] {v. phr.}, {informal} 1. To chase or follow closely and without giving up. * /The Indians followed up the wounded buffalo until it fell dead./ 2. Make (one […] A Dictionary of American Idioms

out of all proportion

[out of all proportion] {adv. phr.} Disproportionate; lopsided. * /The news coverage of the sensational celebrity double murder has grown out of all proportion, obscuring the international news./ A Dictionary of American Idioms

black out

[black out] {v.} 1. To darken by putting out or dimming lights, * /In some plays the stage is blacked out for a short time and the actors speak in […] A Dictionary of American Idioms

strike

[strike] or [hit a sour note] {v. phr.} To spoil the mood at a gathering by hearing some bad news. * /The news of Mr. Brown's sudden illness struck a […] A Dictionary of American Idioms

Slang is

"very informal usage in vocabulary and idiom that is characteristically more metaphorical, playful, elliptical, vivid and ephemeral than ordinary language" (Random House Unabridged Dictionary) - learn ~600 slang expressions

An idiom is

an expression "whose meaning is not predictable from the usual meanings of its constituent elements… or from the general grammatical rules of a language"

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