Join In
Twitter
YouTube
Weekly Newsletter
Libraries
A-Z Grammatical Terms
A-Z Confused Words
A-Z Awkward Plurals
Punctuation Lessons
Common Mistakes
(ordered by seriousness) ESL Vocabulary Lists Parts of Speech Lists A-Z Idioms and Proverbs Tests and Games Top Tip Install a grammar checker
for your browser
(ordered by seriousness) ESL Vocabulary Lists Parts of Speech Lists A-Z Idioms and Proverbs Tests and Games Top Tip Install a grammar checker
for your browser
A Bad Egg / A Good Egg (Origin)
What Is the Origin of the Saying "A Bad Egg / A Good Egg"?
Meaning decent and dependable (good egg) or not reliable or corrupt (bad egg), the term bad egg was first used in the novel "Captain Priest" by Samuel A Hammett. These metaphors in the novel was greatly studied in the 20th century and was used to describe the decent people as good eggs.
Previous and Next Sayings
Test Your Knowledge of English Proverbs and Idioms
Ready for the Test?
More Proverbs, Sayings, and Idioms
Help Us Improve Grammar Monster
- Do you disagree with something on this page?
- Did you spot a typo?
Find Us Quicker!
- When using a search engine (e.g., Google, Bing), you will find Grammar Monster quicker if you add #gm to your search term.