rotten apple

Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus, Medical, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia.

a rotten apple

A 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, rotten

rotten apple

a 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, rotten

rotten apple

A 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, rotten

rotten 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

References in periodicals archive ?

Applied ethics can be understood and applied in addressing the rotten core aspects (through social ethics), rotten barrel aspects (through business ethics), and rotten apple aspects (through professional ethics).

An Aristotelian-Thomistic approach to professional ethics

Gerald Bracey offers me and my co-author a belated Rotten Apple award.

Backtalk

I am afraid I believe Tony Blair was the original rotten apple and now the whole barrel has gone putrid.

Labour's barrel of apples has gone bad

If one rotten apple can do that, small wonder that a whole basketful can and still does threaten the entire banking system.

A whole basketful of rotten apples

Unfortunately even in the nursing profession there will be the odd rotten apple.

Editorial Comment Right to strike out evil nurse

It was if there was a rotten apple or garlic smell minutes later.

Survivor testifies in Iraq trial

The proverbial rotten apple could cost you an entire harvest.

Fruitful year for wasps

It is again flattering to win Gerald Bracey's Rotten Apple Award, along with the likes of President Clinton, Vice President Gore, William Bennett, journalists from the New York Times and Washington Post, and such influential scholars as Chester Finn and Diane Ravitch.

Backtalk More Distortions

Prandelli advised Balotelli to listen to Mancini's advice, and added that Berlusconi might have branded the striker as a rotten apple but he has always behaved nicely during national duties.

Italy manager Prandelli tells Balotelli he is no 'super hero'

So long as one rotten apple is left in the barrel .

The game is up for 'rotten apples' VOICE OF THE NORTH

For ripening also read rotting, as many apples I've picked over the years which have been carefully wrapped individually in newspaper and put in a dark cool place eventually turn to a black mass of rotten apple. In the past I have always followed the book which says apples are ready when you lift them up and they come off the branch with a gentle twist.

gardens: dig this

Smith, a father of one, finally recognised he had been a thoroughly rotten apple. He had gone firmly off the rails and did not realise he was out of control.

Friend was robbed

Which is why, instead of castigating Mereseyside Police for the actions of one rotten apple, we should today be praising them for meeting the high moral standards we expect of them.

Voice of the ECHO: Abuse of our trust

The poster asks: "Is there a rotten apple in the barrel?" It comes eight months after the force's Inspector Adam Carruthers was jailed for 12 years for raping two women.