bad apple
16
4.4
- noun
- /bæd ˈæpəl/
- Informal
:
persona tóxica
- The manager decided to remove the bad apple from the team to improve morale.
- a few bad apples
- just one bad apple
- bad apples spoil the whole bunch
If one is defective, the proverbial bad apple rotting out the entire barrel.
- If one is defective, the proverbial bad apple rotting out the entire barrel.
- At that time I said there's a few bad apples that spoil it for the rest.
- But it's oversimplified to simply say, all right, well, the bad apple got arrested.
- So there's a bad apple in every bunch.
- And you know, you had some, some bad apples and and you know it, it takes a while to get the right team together, right?
- We ask people to turn the other way or saying that's one bad apple when sanctioned abuse happens, rather than saying Nah, maybe it's a bad tree.
- Now, yes, there are, there are fucking bad apples and, and, and we've seen that.
- But, you know, you might think, look, this person is bad apple.
- Sort of the, you know, few bad apples throw the whole bunch out.
Examples
-
Look, Mike, the church wants us to believe that it's just a few bad apples.
-
There will always be a few bad apples, but that does not mean they're all bad.
Blog text (30) -
Pretty much is the bad apple of the family.
-
All it takes is one bad apple to spoil any environment...
-
You know, one bad apple can ruin your whole day.
-
There are always bad apples.
-
Even with the actions of a few bad apples, this was still a wonderful event.
Blog text (14) -
Because those few bad apples are giving all the rest of the scientists a bad name.
Blog text (8) -
I have to weed out the bad apples.
-
So there's a bad apple in every bunch.
Synonyms
104
1.6
A person who harms others on purpose or does wrong things
5
5.6
A person who cannot be trusted and may lie or steal
1
5.3
A person whose bad actions harm others in a group
1
8.3
A person who causes trouble on purpose or acts dishonestly
1
5.6
A person who other people do not respect because they behave badly
How Harmful
2
7.0
- US
1
5.8
- Informal
16
4.4
- Offensive
69
4.1
62
3.6
Surface Forms
Morphology
bad + apple
The phrase combines the transparent adjective 'bad' with 'apple' metaphorically: learners will likely infer a negative quality, but the shift from a fruit to a person who negatively influences a group is a cultural/metaphorical mapping not directly derivable from the words alone. The expression relies on the familiar proverb about a rotten apple spoiling the bunch (found in many languages), so it's partly accessible but still requires prior exposure to reach the full idiomatic sense.
Etymology
Bad apple comes from the picture of one rotten apple in a barrel: one bad fruit can make the others go bad. So today a bad apple means a person whose 'bad' behavior can 'spoil' or harm the whole group.