a curate's egg



a curate's egg

  (British)
something which has both good and bad parts
Usage notes: A curate is a priest. There is a joke about a curate who was given a bad egg and said that parts of the egg were good because he did not want to offend the person who gave it to him.
Queen's College is something of a curate's egg, with elegant Victorian buildings alongside some of the ugliest modern architecture.
See also: egg

Common Names:

NameGenderPronouncedUsage
Charline-French
Jimmujeem-moo (Japanese)Far Eastern Mythology
Yaw-Western African, Akan
Cyneburg-Anglo-Saxon
ErlandER-lahnd (Swedish)Swedish, Danish
Gunne-Swedish, Norwegian