the bottom of the barrel
9
6.6
- idiom
- Informal
:
lo peor de lo peor
- When it comes to job candidates, we are at the bottom of the barrel after the recent layoffs.
When you look at the actual skills of Black law students, they are at the bottom of the barrel.
- When you look at the actual skills of Black law students, they are at the bottom of the barrel.
- You sacrifice your name, your power, your religion, your family, and you're going to get shoved to the bottom of the barrel.
- I mean, look, we're scrape in the bottom of the barrel here reporting all this MAGA shit.
- There are all those dudes are playing and here I'm like treated like I, I'm at the bottom of the barrel, right.
- There's this fight to the bottom of the barrel, you know, so that's how they they don't help each other.
Examples
-
After trying every option available, we realized we were scraping the bottom of the barrel for ideas.
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I'm tired of being at the bottom of the barrel.
-
If what you are doing takes you to the bottom of the barrel, try doing something different.
Blog text (10) -
This seems like the bottom of the barrel as far as being a marshal.
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They're the bottom of the barrel, and they know it.
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You propose we scrape the bottom of the barrel for 12 of our worst kids.
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My guess is they'll probably be scraping the bottom of the barrel.
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Sadly, for the LPGA, they get the bottom of the barrel from TGC's talent pool.
Blog text (12) -
They are scraping the bottom of the barrel for cheerleaders these days.
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It feels like we are at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to support from management.
Synonyms
3
7.5
Use the least good options because nothing better is left
A cheaper model in a product range that has lower quality and is chosen to save money
Antonyms
How Desirable
Surface Forms
Morphology
the + bottom + of + the + barrel
The sense 'the least desirable/worst' follows a straightforward metaphorical mapping from 'bottom' (the lowest part) and 'barrel' (a container), implying the remaining, low-quality items; a learner who knows both words can plausibly infer this meaning. However, it relies on a cultural image of containers having dregs and is somewhat idiomatic rather than wholly compositional, so it is not fully transparent.
Etymology
The expression the bottom of the barrel may come from the simple image of people taking the best goods from a barrel until only poor pieces remain at the bottom. Because the worst items were left at the bottom, the phrase now means 'the least desirable' or the worst options.