Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com

rotten to the core

Idioms  

  1. Thoroughly bad, as in It seems that this police unit is rotten to the core, involved in numerous extortion schemes. The noun core here denotes the central part or heart of anything or anyone. The idiom was first recorded in 1804.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Rotten to the core … The Sex Pistols on their silver jubilee boat trip in 1977.

From The Guardian • May 29, 2012

I light and croak    My sombre lore, As swaggering you go by, O heart of oak    Rotten to the core!

From Songs of the Army of the Night by Adams, Francis William Lauderdale

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.