the bottom of the barrel

The cheapest, worst, or lowest quality. Used to describe an item in a range of comparable products. I know we need to save money, but this bottom-of-the-barrel computer barely even works. Our washing machine broke down after just two months of use, but that's what we get for buying the bottom of the barrel.

See also: barrel, bottom, of

bottom of the barrel

and bottom of the heap

Fig. the location of persons or things of the very lowest quality; someone or something of the lowest quality. (The fruit at the bottom of a barrel of apples is likely to be bruised from the weight of the other apples.) That last secretary you sent me was really the bottom of the barrel. I don't need any candidates from the bottom of the heap.

See also: barrel, bottom, of

bottom of the barrel

The least desirable, the dregs, as in The nominating committee had trouble finding candidates; they were settling for the bottom of the barrel . The phrase often occurs in scrape the bottom of the barrel, meaning "to use the least desirable elements" (because one has no choice), as in Bringing up that minor legal point proves that you're scraping the bottom of the barrel. This metaphor for the sediment left by wine in a barrel was already used by Cicero to describe the lowest elements of Roman society. [First half of 1900s]

See also: barrel, bottom, of

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.

bottom of the barrel

and bottom of the heap

n. the location of persons or things of the very lowest quality. (see also scrape the bottom of the barrel.) That last secretary you sent me was really from the bottom of the barrel. If you drop out of school, you stay at the bottom of the heap.

See also: barrel, bottom, of

See also:

References in periodicals archive

The bottom of the barrel was cut out, notice that the curve at the bottom of the barrel was left, helping it funnel the grain out.

HOW TO BUILD A PORTABLE PIG FEEDER

Injuries, suspensions and a retirement has forced the Australian into scraping the bottom of the barrel ahead of tomorrow's Twickenham clash with South Africa.

Ed's forced to dig deep

"Kim might have to scrape the bottom of the barrel to secure governing funds and this might have added to his sort of threat perception," Park said.

N. Korean leader shifts gear to economy

Don't worry about the "42" on the bottom of the barrel, it's just fine.

WORLD WAR II MAUSER LUGER

The PM preaches so much about "burning injustices" but this recent appointment brings scraping the bottom of the barrel to a whole new level.

Lacking any confidence

The PM preaches so much about 'burning injustices' but this recent appointment brings scraping the bottom of the barrel to a whole new level.

A worrying appointment; Letters

The project will also include a delayed coker unit, said the minister in his welcome address at the Bottom of the Barrel Technology Conference (BBTC 2017) organised by Euro Petroleum Consultants.

TechnipFMC consortium bags $4.2bn Bahrain refinery project

The BBTC MENA 2017 - Bottom of the Barrel Technology Conference and Exhibition will focus on the different technologies, catalysts and equipment innovations that are helping refiners to successfully upgrade the bottom of the barrel.

Oil and gas industry issues to be probed

The government is 'scraping at the bottom of the barrel' to justify her continued detention, Senator Leila De Lima said.

De Lima: Gov't going to great lengths to justify detention

Please note, that high-pitched sound you can currently hear isn't a ghost, it's television chiefs scraping the bottom of the barrel. Christine summed up this haunting prospect by wittering: "Five nights in the UK's spookiest hotel with great celebrity guests over Halloween - what could go wrong?" Er, dunno, Christine.

IT'S enough to make the hairs on the back of your [...]

Unfortunately, the film ends up in a position best described as the top of the bottom of the barrel: a tetchy, pummeling experience devoid of any real wit, invention or suspense, but boasting enough of a professional sheen and a sufficiently stacked cast to carve out some niche space overseas and on VOD.

Criminal

YOU know that feeling when you reach the bottom of the barrel? Well, Pixel the polar bear does.

CAN'T GET MY BEARINGS

In each case the round hits the bottom of the barrel and won't feed except for the last round.

1911 questions