bad apple

From the proverb “one bad apple can spoil the whole bunch” (or a variant thereof).

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bad apple (plural bad apples)

1. (idiomatic, often in the plural) A person who is not wholesome, honest, or trustworthy, especially one who has an adverse influence on others.

   Synonyms: rotten apple, bad seed

   Near-synonym: bad egg

   • 1956 March 19, “Echoing Ring (book review of Bang the Drum Slowly by Mark Harris)”, in TIME‎^[1], archived from the original on 11 March 2012:

     There is one bad apple, and that is Katie, the beautiful prostitute with whom Catcher Bruce is in love. Unlike the cliche harlot of fiction, she is as short of compassion as Bruce is of IQ.

   • 2003 October 5, Steven Greenhouse, “Unions See Politics in New Disclosure Rules”, in The New York Times‎^[2], archived from the original on 6 October 2020:

     While most union leaders are people of integrity, there are still bad apples.

   • 2006 January 27, Jeff Madrick, “Wall Street: More than few bad apples”, in The New York Times‎^[3], archived from the original on 13 November 2021:

     If anyone still harbors the fantasy that the business scandals of the past few years were the handiwork of just a few bad apples, they should read John Bogle's "Battle for the Soul of Capitalism."

• bad appling

• there's a rotten apple in every barrel

• “bad apple”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.