bad egg

noun

informal + somewhat old-fashioned

: someone who does bad things

He was dishonest, but he was the only bad egg in the group.

Examples of bad egg in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

But Ulf always struck me as savvy — a person who could tell a good man from a bad egg. — Amanda Whiting, Vulture, 3 Aug. 2026

But there was one bad egg, whose presence became all the more disruptive when the group shifted to Zoom during the pandemic. — Lauren Mechling, Vogue, 23 Jan. 2026

And all of our employees are very trustworthy, but there might be a bad egg throwing in some AI receipts in there. — Jason Del Rey, Fortune, 15 Oct. 2025

The stars really aligned on this one, because there's just not a bad egg in the group. — H. Alan Scott, MSNBC Newsweek, 16 Apr. 2025

Lastly, choose your companions carefully—one bad egg in an otherwise collegial foursome can spoil an otherwise divine getaway. — David Weiss, Forbes, 7 Mar. 2025

The series is about five sisters who are living outside of Dublin, and one of them is married to a particularly bad egg. — WIRED, 23 Mar. 2023

Rhymes for bad egg

• blackleg
• bootleg
• foreleg
• mpeg
• nutmeg
• prepreg
• beg
• clegg
• keg
• leg
• legg
• meg