curate's egg

9.9

Something like a book or film that has good and bad parts

noun

: huevo del cura

The team's performance was a curate's egg, with some impressive moments but clear mistakes too.

Examples

Her new novel is a bit of a curate's egg, offering some sharp insights alongside confusing passages.
This report is a real curate's egg!
Critics called the play a curate's egg, noting both its brilliant dialogue and awkward pacing.
The movie was a curate's egg of stunning visuals and a weak plot.
The film was a curate's egg; some scenes were thrilling, while others dragged on.
His new album is a curate's egg, with a few standout tracks but several filler songs.
The restaurant's menu felt like a curate's egg, offering delicious meals alongside some disappointing ones.

Antonyms

ideal

203 4.2

Perfect or best for a particular purpose

Surface Forms

curate's egg singular

curate's eggs plural

Morphology

curate's + egg

The meaning 'partly good and partly bad' cannot be derived from the literal constituents 'curate' (a clergyman) and 'egg' (a food); the phrase is an idiomatic, culture-specific reference (from a historical cartoon) rather than a transparent composition. Because the possessive and historical source are not predictable from the words themselves and 'curate' is infrequent, a B1 learner who knows the constituent words would not reliably infer the intended meaning.

Etymology

The idiom curate's egg comes from a famous cartoon where a young priest, a curate, is given a rotten egg but is too polite to complain and says that 'parts of it are excellent'. So today curate's egg means 'partly good and partly bad'.