curate's egg是什么意思_curate's egg的用法_词性_词根

双语例句

For example Fowler condemned as "cliches" many phrases I'd never heard: "a curate's egg", "neither fish, flesh nor good red herring", and so on.

比如说福勒拿来批评“循词”的许多短语我听都没听说过：“一只牧师助理的鸡蛋”，“非鱼，非肉，也不是标致的红鲱鱼”，诸如此类。

释义

Brit. a thing that is partly good and partly bad

〈英〉好坏参半的东西

this book is a bit of a curate's egg.

这本书有点良莠参半。

词源

"early 20th cent.: from a cartoon in Punch （1895） depicting a meek curate who, given a stale egg at the bishop's table, assures his host that ‘parts of it are excellent’."