Meaning of curate's egg | Babel Free

Definitions

A thing which has good and bad parts, but is overall spoiled by the bad.

idiomatic

Examples

“We cannot say⟳ we are uniformly favourably impressed with such portions of the work⟳ as we have⟳ read⟳. The work⟳ strikes us as being rather unequal. Like⟳ the curate's egg, parts of it are excellent, but parts provide⟳ bad material for assimilation.”

“But what does he give⟳ us? A mess of pottage—or a curate's egg, if you prefer⟳ that—where fine, descriptive passages in good English, and showing a sensitive nature that appreciates beauty, go cheek by jowl with bad grammar, and casual intimacies such as one would look⟳ for in the personal story of a Simplicissimus.”

“Like⟳ the fabled "curate's egg," it may be good in parts. I agree⟳ with the last⟳ speaker in regard to the State having control⟳ of the appointmentof the directors, but I also endorse his objections to some other powers that are given under the Bill.”

“The neat and tidy temporal ordering is, like⟳ the curate's egg, good in parts, but only in some parts. Neither of us vaunts much competence in the egg world, but it must have⟳ been rotten, the curate's egg.”

“[W]orks of art are not like⟳ curates' eggs, only good in parts. Nothing inspires the engineer or layman alike more than a daring bridge design⟳, but what makes a really good bridge is how the structure⟳ manages to integrate all the demanding and conflicting requirements over a period of time and still give⟳ artistic satisfaction.”

“The comparison of models and theories needs to be qualitative and specific. Theories, like⟳ curates' eggs, can be good in parts.”

CEFR level