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bad seed

British

noun

informal a person who is seen as being congenitally disposed to wrongdoing and likely to be a bad influence on others

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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.

But it’s not just a bad seed who becomes a bully.

From Scientific American • Jul. 19, 2021

And at the moment, she’s the “unreliable” and “uninsurable” bad seed that no one in her home country wants to deal with.

From Washington Times • Sep. 25, 2019

Gradually we learn how the sisters struggle their way toward more or less fixed identities as awkward good girl Hana and rebellious bad seed Kei.

From Seattle Times • May 13, 2018

“It’s either bad seed or bad soil,” one of the hospital pediatricians said, meaning either I was the bad soil or my daughter was the bad seed.

From Salon • May 7, 2013

Sabatini: To be honest with you, I just think he’s a bad seed.

From "Our America: Life and Death on the South Side of Chicago" by LeAlan Jones

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