mixed bag

American  

noun

Informal.

1. an often unexpected assortment of various things, people, or ideas.

   The concert was a mixed bag of works from three centuries.

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mixed bag British  

noun

1. informal something composed of diverse elements, characteristics, people, etc

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mixed bag Idioms  

1. A heterogeneous collection of people, items, activities, or the like; an assortment. For example, The school offers a mixed bag of after-school activities—team sports, band practice, a language class. This idiom calls up the image of a sack full of different items. [First half of 1900s]

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Etymology

Origin of mixed bag

First recorded in 1935–40

Example Sentences

Inflation can be a mixed bag for Social Security’s trust fund.

From Barron's • Jun. 10, 2026

V&A East Museum, then, is a mixed bag and largely a missed opportunity.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 2, 2026

But a mixed bag of earnings this past week from Amazon.com, Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta Platforms, and Apple has reinforced the notion that XLK may be the way to go.

From Barron's • May 1, 2026

April is notorious for brining a mixed bag of unpredictable weather and this week has been a real example of that.

From BBC • Apr. 26, 2026

There was an immense quantity of large game, and I had made a mixed bag of elephants, hippopotami, buffaloes, rhinoceros, giraffes, and great numbers of the large antelopes.

From The Nile tributaries of Abyssinia, and the sword hunters of the Hamran arabs by Baker, Samuel White, Sir