Bad Egg

Meaning of Idiom ‘Bad Egg’

A bad egg is a person who, although they seem to be good, turns out to be a very bad person; one who cannot be trusted.

Bad egg is the opposite of good egg.

Examples Of Use

“I’m telling you, Robert is just a bad egg. I wouldn’t trust him if I were you.”

“It’s disappointing when someone you think is a good friend turns out to be a bad egg.”

“I’m not surprised at all that he lied. I always knew he was a bad egg.”

Origin

Egg has been used to describe people since the 1600s but this idiom arose during the mid-1800s. It alludes to an egg which seems perfectly fine on the outside but when broken open turns out to be rotten. The antonym, good egg, arose later. 1Ammer, Christine. American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013.

More Idioms Starting with B

• Beat a Dead Horse
• Buck For Something
• Bottomless Pit
• Barge In
• Bone Of Contention, a

More ‘Bad’ Idioms

• Go Bad
• Right Off the Bat

More Egg Idioms

• If We Had Ham We Could Make Ham and Eggs, If We Had Eggs
• Goose Egg
• Go Suck an Egg
• Nest Egg, a
• Egg On

More Character Idioms

• Pain in the Neck, a
• Glass Half Empty and Glass Half Full
• Good Egg
• Show Your True Colors, to
• Salt of the Earth, the

More Food Related Idioms

• Go Pear-shaped
• Chopped Liver
• Low-Hanging Fruit
• Know Which Side Your Bread is Buttered On
• Like Shooting Fish in a Barrel

More Negative Character Idioms

• Pain in the Neck, a
• Show Your True Colors, to
• Not Have A ______ Bone In One’s Body
• Full Of Yourself
• Fair-Weather Friend

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