| 释义 |
a rotten apple a rotten appleA person whose own words or actions negatively impacts an entire group of people. Taken from the proverb "a rotten apple spoils the bunch." Before you accuse the entire department of wrongdoing, you should try to find the rotten apple that initially caused the problem.See also: apple, rottenrotten applea single bad person or thing. There always is a rotten apple to spoil it for the rest of us. Tom sure has turned out to be the rotten apple.See also: apple, rottenrotten appleA bad individual among many good ones, especially one that spoils the group. For example, The roommates are having problems with Edith-she's the one rotten apple of the bunch. This expression is a shortening of the proverb a rotten apple spoils the barrel, coming from a 14th-century Latin proverb translated as "The rotten apple injures its neighbors." The allusion in this idiom is to the spread of mold or other diseases from one apple to the rest. In English the first recorded use was in Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack (1736). See also: apple, rottena rotten (or bad) apple a bad person in a group, typically one whose behaviour is likely to have a corrupting influence on the rest. informalSee also: apple, rottena bad/rotten ˈapple one bad person who has a bad effect on others in a group: In response to the allegations of mass corruption within the team, a former player said today, ‘There may be the odd rotten apple in the pack, but the majority are clean and honest.’See also: apple, bad, rottenrotten apple n. a single bad person or thing. There always is a rotten apple to spoil it for the rest of us. See also: apple, rotten |