Word.ws English Dictionary

a bad penny always turns up

/ə bæd pɛni ɔɫweɪz tɝnz ʌp/

a bad penny always turns up proverb: a person or thing which is unpleasant, dishonorable, or unwanted tends to appear (or reappear), especially at inopportune times.

Proverb

a bad penny always turns up

  1. A person or thing which is unpleasant, dishonorable, or unwanted tends to appear (or reappear), especially at inopportune times.
    • It has been wisely said: “A bad penny always turns up again.” . . . Merwin K. Hart turns up again and again. And the Money-Changers of the Republican Party have knowingly sought to profit from Hart's lobby activities.1952, Ralph Morris Goldman, “The Money-Changers at the Ballot Box: A Study of Republican Election Buying,”, in The Future Catches Up, Vol. 2, published 2002, →ISBN, page 89
    • Elsa Schneider: I never expected to see you again.
      Indiana Jones: I'm like a bad penny. I always turn up.1989, Jeffrey Boam (author of screenplay), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, (excerpts at wikiquote)
  2. An action or task that is carried out improperly eventually causes problems.

Forms of a bad penny always turns up

alternative forma bad penny always comes back
alternative formthe bad penny always comes back
alternative formthe bad penny always turns up

Questions about a bad penny always turns up

What does a bad penny always turns up mean?
A bad penny always turns up means a person or thing which is unpleasant, dishonorable, or unwanted tends to appear (or reappear), especially at inopportune times.
What part of speech is a bad penny always turns up?
A bad penny always turns up is a proverb.
How do you pronounce a bad penny always turns up?
A bad penny always turns up is pronounced /ə bæd pɛni ɔɫweɪz tɝnz ʌp/.

Words near a bad penny always turns up in the dictionary

  1. a aa
  2. A and E
  3. A and M
  4. a baculo
  5. a bad penny always comes back
  6. a bad penny always turns up
  7. a bad tree does not yield good apples
  8. a bad workman always blames his tools
  9. A band
  10. A bands
  11. a barking dog never bites

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: a bad penny always turns up (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-a bad penny always turns up.wav.

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