Word.ws English Dictionary

one bad apple can spoil the barrel

one bad apple can spoil the barrel proverb: one bad person or element can have a harmful influence on many others.

Proverb

one bad apple can spoil the barrel

  1. One bad person or element can have a harmful influence on many others.
    • "One of our kittens started chewing on the chair the other day and now they're all doing it! Just goes to show that one bad apple can spoil the barrel."

one bad apple can spoil the barrel meaning in Hindi, Urdu and Vietnamese

one bad apple can spoil the barrel in Hindi

one bad person or element can have a harmful influence on many others
एक गंदी मछली पूरे तालाब को गंदा कर देती है ek gandī machlī pūre tālāb ko gandā kar detī hai

one bad apple can spoil the barrel in Urdu

one bad person or element can have a harmful influence on many others
ایک گندی مچھلی پورے تالاب کو گندہ کر دیتی ہے

one bad apple can spoil the barrel in Vietnamese

one bad person or element can have a harmful influence on many others
con sâu làm rầu nồi canh

Synonyms of one bad apple can spoil the barrel

Origin of one bad apple can spoil the barrel

From the observation that rot of a single fruit can spread to many fruit nearby.

Questions about one bad apple can spoil the barrel

What does one bad apple can spoil the barrel mean?
One bad apple can spoil the barrel means one bad person or element can have a harmful influence on many others.
What is one bad apple can spoil the barrel in Hindi?
One bad apple can spoil the barrel in Hindi is एक गंदी मछली पूरे तालाब को गंदा कर देती है (ek gandī machlī pūre tālāb ko gandā kar detī hai). See One bad apple can spoil the barrel meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is one bad apple can spoil the barrel?
One bad apple can spoil the barrel is a proverb.

Words near one bad apple can spoil the barrel in the dictionary

  1. one and the same
  2. one another
  3. one another's
  4. one anothers
  5. one at a time
  6. one bad apple can spoil the barrel
  7. one bad apple can spoil the whole bunch
  8. one bad turn deserves another
  9. one big happy family
  10. one brick short of a full load
  11. one by one

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: one bad apple can spoil the barrel (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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “one bad apple can spoil the barrel.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/one_bad_apple_can_spoil_the_barrel. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.