bad egg

English

Etymology

An allusion to an egg that has gone bad or turned rotten.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈbæd ɛɡ/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

bad egg (plural bad eggs)

1. (British, US, idiomatic) Someone whose behaviour is reprehensible or irresponsible; a rogue.
   • 1906, Horatio Alger, Joe the Hotel Boy:

     "Dat's right!" piped up the newsboy who had brought the policeman. "I see him do de trick jest a minit ago!"
     "This is a plot against me!" fumed the swindler.
     "Dat feller is a bad egg!" went on the newsboy. "His name is Bill Butts. He's a slick one, he is. Hits de country jays strong, he does!"

   • 1914 October – 1916 July, Edgar Rice Burroughs, chapter X, in The Mucker, Chicago, Ill.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg & Co., published 31 October 1921, →OCLC:

     I've been a fairly bad egg, Byrne, for a great many years; but, by George! I'm not entirely rotten yet.

   • 1990, John Updike, Rabbit at Rest:

     My son had a drug problem and hired a bad egg as a chief accountant […]

   • 2017 May 26, Dan Shive, El Goonish Shive (webcomic), Comic for Friday, May 26, 2017:

     "And the fifth immortal we know tried to kill you." "He is a bad egg. We stick to good eggs."

2. (literal) An egg that has gone bad; a rotten egg.

Antonyms

• good egg

Translations

rogue

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 壞蛋／坏蛋 (zh) (huàidàn)

• Finnish: mätämuna (fi)
• French: délinquant (fr), malfrat (fr) m, bandit (fr) m
• Latin: carō pūtida f
• Romanian: stricat (ro) m, ticălos (ro) m
• Scottish Gaelic: droch-isean m

See also

• bad apple
• bad seed

Anagrams

• bagged