curate's egg
good and bad
TRANSLATION
teils gut, teils schlecht; durchwachsen; ein zwiespältiges Ergebnis; mit Licht- und Schattenseiten; nicht völlig misslungen, aber auch nicht wirklich gelungen; ein gemischtes Bild; von unterschiedlicher Qualität; mal so, mal so
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
Lucian Freud: Drawing into Painting is the first National Portrait Gallery show since Lucian Freud Portraits in 2012. With 48 sketchbooks donated to the NPG as its starting point, this show is somewhat odd. You don’t know whether to say it is good or it is bad, as Lucian Freud was such a great master of the portrait, and some are in this show. But like the CURATE'S EGG cartoon in the famous 1895 Punch cartoon by George du Maurier, the young curate says of the bad egg he is served at the Bishop’s table, “Oh no, my Lord. I assure you! Parts of it are excellent!”
John K Grande - Artlyst (13th February 2026)
Did you
know?
curate's egg
idiom
- Something with both good and bad parts or qualities.
- Something that is partly good and partly bad.
Merriam-Webster, Farlex Dictionary of Idioms
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WORD ORIGIN
Unlike many idioms, curate's egg has a precisely identifiable birth certificate. The phrase comes from an 1895 cartoon in the British satirical magazine Punch, drawn by George du Maurier. The cartoon shows a timid young curate (a junior clergyman) having breakfast with a bishop. The bishop notices that the curate's egg is bad and remarks:
"I'm afraid you've got a bad egg, Mr. Jones."
Too embarrassed to disagree with his superior, the curate replies:
"Oh no, my Lord, I assure you! Parts of it are excellent!"
The phrase quickly entered British English as a humorous description of anything that contains both positive and negative elements—especially when people are reluctant to admit the negatives.
More than 130 years later, the expression still survives.
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GOOD IN PARTS
Most people use curate's egg to mean something that is partly good and partly bad.
In the famous Victorian cartoon, a young curate is served a bad egg while having breakfast with a bishop. The bishop politely asks whether he likes it. The curate, too nervous to be honest, replies that "parts of it are excellent."
Of course, an egg can't be good in parts. If it's bad, it's bad.
The humour comes from the curate's inability to tell the truth. The cartoon is really about politeness, status, and the awkward things people say when they don't want to offend someone.
Over time, however, the phrase lost most of that meaning. People began using it simply to mean "mixed quality" — a book with a strong beginning and a weak ending, a film with some good scenes and some bad ones.
However, the old cartoon still has something to teach us. Whenever people feel uncomfortable speaking honestly, bad ideas, bad decisions, and occasionally bad eggs can survive much longer than they should.
Helga & Paul Smith
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SYNONYMS
ambivalent, chequered, CURATE'S EGG, hit-and-miss, inconsistent, mixed, mixed bag, patchy, uneven, variable, faint praise, damning with faint praise, polite fiction, sugar-coated
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SMUGGLE OWAD into a conversation today, start with something like:
"The term CURATE'S EGG is a good example of English politeness used to avoid conflict."
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