mixed bag
A diverse mixture or group. The conference was a mixed bag of all kinds of different people. I thought that all of my classes this semester would be interesting, but it's really been a mixed bag so far.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
mixed bag
a varied collection of people or things. (Refers originally to a bag of game brought home after a day's hunting.) The new students in my class are a mixed bag—some bright, some positively stupid. The furniture I bought is a mixed bag. Some of it is antique and the rest is quite contemporary.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
mixed bag
A heterogeneous collection of people, items, activities, or the like; an assortment. For example, The school offers a mixed bag of after-school activities-team sports, band practice, a language class . This idiom calls up the image of a sack full of different items. [First half of 1900s]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
a mixed bag
COMMON If something is a mixed bag, it contains things that are of very different types or qualities. The newspapers carry a mixed bag of stories on their front pages. The programmes are a mixed bag as they have to cater for all tastes. Note: The bag referred to here is a hunting bag containing the different kinds of animals and birds that the hunter has shot.
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012
a mixed bag
a diverse assortment of things or people.Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
mixed bag, a
A haphazard collection of objects, people, or categories. This phrase dates from the first half of the 1900s. For example, “Representatives of the press, a mixed bag in age, but not in sex” (A. Behrend, Samurai Affair, 1973), indicates journalists of many different ages but all either male or female.
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer