bottom of the barrel

Idioms  

1. 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]

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Example Sentences

Nygren is a value-stock investor, but that does not mean he scrapes the bottom of the barrel for the cheapest stocks.

From MarketWatch • Feb. 5, 2026

The horror space does not necessarily demand ingenuity; there’s an audience for even the worst drivel at the bottom of the barrel.

From Salon • Feb. 26, 2025

People are having to scrap the bottom of the barrel of optimism right now.

From BBC • Sep. 5, 2024

“You can be quite certain that at the bottom of the barrel of that supply chain, someone is making next to nothing,” Gutfreund says.

From National Geographic • Feb. 5, 2024

By the end of the first week, I was scrounging at the bottom of the barrel for deals to make.

From "Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie" by Jordan Sonnenblick

Related Words

• immature
• incomplete
• inexact
• rudimentary
• sketchy
• warped