or -halfpenny, -hat, -lot, -penny, etc., subs. phr. (common).—1. A ne’er-do-well; a ‘loose fish’: in America more indefinitely used than in England. Also (old) = a bad or risky speculation, Fr. mauvais gobet. [Cf. provincial (Cumberland) BAD = a strumpet.]
1363. LANGLAND, Piers Plowman, C. xviii. 73. [Men may lykne letterid men … to a BADDE PENY.]
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongues, s.v. BAD HALFPENNY. When a man has been upon any errand, or attempting any object which has proved unsuccessful or impracticable, he will say, on his return, It’s A BAD HALFPENNY; meaning he has returned as he went.
1849. THACKERAY, Pendennis, lx. ‘He’s a bad’un, Mr. Lightfoot—a BAD LOT, sir, and that you know.’
1866. G. A. SALA, A Trip to Barbary, 130. The man in black baize with the felt képi,… looked from head to heel a BAD EGG.
1867. C. G. LELAND, The Breitmann Ballads.
| But von gray-haared oldt veller shmiled crimly und bet | |
| Dat Breitmann vouldt pe a PAD EGG for dem yet. |
1868. M. E. BRADDON, The Trail of the Serpent, ii. I am a BAD LOT. I wonder they don’t hang such men as me. Ibid. (1872), Dead Sea Fruit, i. So BAD A LOT that he dare not give himself a decent character.
1877. BLACKMORE, Erema. A very handsome girl she may be, but a BAD LOT, as her father was.
1877. W. H. THOMSON, Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ii. 123. Many of the officials of the convict prisons who are what the Yankees call ‘BAD EGGS.’
1883. BESANT, The Captain’s Room, II. ix. There may be one or two BAD HATS among eldest sons; but … there cannot be one who would dare to take his wife’s salary and deprive her of her son.
1885. STAVELY HILL, From Home to Home, v. A considerable feeling … that he was a ‘BAD EGG,’ and they even went so far as to suggest that the sooner he had a bullet in him the better.
1899. HYNE, Further Adventures of Captain Kettle, iii. We’ve a good deal in common: we’re all BAD EGGS, and we’re none of us fit for our billets.
1900. G. BOOTHBY, A Maker of Nations, i. That French chap is a BAD HAT.
