bad egg
a person who is bad, dishonest, or unreliable; a good-for-nothing: a bad egg who had served several years in prison.
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Origin of bad egg
1Words Nearby bad egg
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use bad egg in a sentence
This an unnervingly compassionate portrait of a truly bad egg.
Bradley Cooper Terrifies in the Dark, Doomed Nightmare Alley | Stephanie Zacharek | December 17, 2021 | TimeChloride of Lime … bad smell … bad egg … white of egg … fowl … grain … flour … flour and water … milk fluid … milk.
Assimilative Memory | Marcus Dwight Larrowe (AKA Prof. A. Loisette)A single bad egg will make the whole mixture heavy, spungy, and of an unpleasant taste.
Domestic French Cookery, 4th ed. | Sulpice BaruWhat made it particularly difficult was that the other man had been a very bad egg, indeed.
When Winter Comes to Main Street | Grant Martin OvertonI suppose, he half laughed, as he walked slowly past the building, the old relic thinks Im a bad egg.
The New Boys at Oakdale | Morgan Scott
"A bad egg," he said, and began to talk about bygone days on the Ridge.
The Black Opal | Katharine Susannah Prichard
Other Idioms and Phrases with bad egg
An individual who turns out to be rotten, as in You can't trust him—he's simply a bad egg. Although egg had been used for various kinds of person (young, good, bad) since Shakespeare's day, this transfer of a seemingly wholesome food that, when opened, turns out to be rotten took place only in the mid-1800s. An early definition appeared in The Atheneum of 1864: “A bad egg ... a fellow who had not proved to be as good as his promise.” In contrast, the schoolyard saying Last one in is a rotten egg does not have any special significance other than as a way of urging others to join an activity, jump in the water, or the like. Also see good egg.
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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