curate's egg
/ˈkjʊɹɪtz ˌɛɡ/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: 1.24 in modern English
14
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
2
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "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."
Etymology
From a cartoon by the Franco-British cartoonist and author George Du Maurier (1834–1896) captioned “True Humility” in the 9 November 1895 issue of Punch magazine, in which a bishop says to his mealtime guest, a curate, “I’m afraid you’ve got a bad egg, Mr. Jones!” The timid curate replies, “Oh no, my Lord, I assure you! Parts of it are excellent!”.
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈkjʊɹɪtz ˌɛɡ/
- British English: /ˈkjʊəɹətz ˌɛɡ/