bad apple

plural bad apples

1. idiomaticin pluraloftenA person who is not wholesome, honest, or trustworthy, especially one who has an adverse influence on others.

   Near-synonym: bad egg

   3 more examples

   There is one bad apple, and that is Katie, the beautiful prostitute with whom Catcher Bruce is in love. Unlike the cliche harlot of fiction, she is as short of compassion as Bruce is of IQ.

   1956 March 19, “Echoing Ring (book review of Bang the Drum Slowly by Mark Harris)”, in TIME, archived from the original on 11 Mar 2012

   While most union leaders are people of integrity, there are still bad apples.

   2003 October 5, Steven Greenhouse, “Unions See Politics in New Disclosure Rules”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 06 Oct 2020

   If anyone still harbors the fantasy that the business scandals of the past few years were the handiwork of just a few bad apples, they should read John Bogle's "Battle for the Soul of Capitalism."

   2006 January 27, Jeff Madrick, “Wall Street: More than few bad apples”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 13 Nov 2021

   Synonyms: rotten apple, bad seed, bad egg