curate's egg



curate's egg

Something that is partly good and partly bad. Taken from a British cartoon about a curate, or priest, who was given a bad egg but focused on the egg's good characteristics as he did not want to offend the person who gave it to him. Primarily heard in UK. Our vacation was a bit of a curate's egg; the first few days were sunny, but the rest of the week was ruined by the heavy rain and flooding.
See also: egg

Common Names:

NameGenderPronouncedUsage
Dana
Vipul-Indian, Marathi, Gujarati, Hindi
JosephineJO-sə-feen (English), yo-ze-FEE-nə (German)English, German, Dutch
Natalianah-TAH-lyah (Polish, Italian, Spanish)Polish, Italian, Spanish, Romanian, Georgian, Late Roman
Charita-Various
ÁRmann-Icelandic