To say the movie was bad is an understatement.understatementun‧der‧state‧ment /ˌʌndəˈsteɪtmənt $ -dər-/ ●○○ noun 
To say the movie was bad is an understatement. ‘It wasn’t very easy to find the house.’ ‘That’s got to be the understatement of the year!’2[uncountable] the practice of making something seem to have less of a particular quality than it really haswith understatement ‘We have not done quite well enough,’ Macmillan said, with characteristic understatement.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
- To say I was surprised would be an understatement.
- She was conscious of being a misfit, and that was a great understatement.
- That's the biggest understatement of all time!
- To say that his situation was difficult would be a decided understatement.
- To say that I was surprised by this state of affairs would be an understatement.
- To say that Reba Cooley presented a striking appearance would have been an understatement of ridiculous proportions.
- To suggest that Niagara was an obsession with him is an understatement.
- We had had a superb day's climbing, and to say his death was tragic is an understatement.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE ENTRY To say the movie was bad is an understatement. ‘It wasn’t very easy to find the house.’ ‘That’s got to be the understatement of the year!’
To say the movie was bad is an understatement. ‘It wasn’t very easy to find the house.’ ‘That’s got to be the understatement of the year!’WORD FAMILYnounstatementunderstatement ≠ overstatementverbstateunderstate ≠ overstateadjectiveunderstated ≠ overstated
1[countable] a statement that is not strong enough to express how good, bad, impressive etc something really is: To say the movie was bad is an understatement. ‘It wasn’t very easy to find the house.’ ‘That’s got to be the understatement of the year!’2[uncountable] the practice of making something seem to have less of a particular quality than it really haswith understatement ‘We have not done quite well enough,’ Macmillan said, with characteristic understatement.