curate's egg

American  

noun

British.

1. something discreetly declared to be partly good but in fact thoroughly bad.

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curate's egg British  

noun

1. something that has both good and bad parts

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Etymology

Origin of curate's egg

After a cartoon by G. du Maurier in the English humor weekly Punch (Nov. 9, 1895): a meek curate, when served a bad egg at the bishop's table, replies that “parts of it are excellent”

Example Sentences

Couple this with the almost 20-year age difference between him and Zooey Deschanel’s love interest and you end up with a strange curate’s egg of a film.

From The Guardian

Another curate’s egg of a side.

From The Guardian

A curate’s egg of a group stage from Nigeria, who came away feeling aggrieved to have lost against Argentina but might not have had anything to mourn if they had turned up for their opening tie with Croatia.

From The Guardian

A takeover would therefore be a “curate’s egg for passengers”, says Andrew Charlton of Aviation Advocacy, a consultancy.

From Economist

A curate’s egg all round then.

From The Guardian