See fly in the ointment in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
"etymology_text": "A reference to Ecclesiastes 10:1 in the Bible (King James Version; spelling modernized): “Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour: so doeth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour.”",
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"fly"
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"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
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"ref": "1807, [Edward Wesley Hare], “Letter V”, in Genuine Methodism Acquitted, and Spurious Methodism Condemned; […] , Rochdale, Lancashire: […] J. Hartley; […], →OCLC, paragraph 5, page 75:",
"text": "And yet, in truth, he was not then a child of God. His pride and uncharitableness, were flies in the ointment.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "[1833, Elia [pseudonym; Charles Lamb], “Poor Relations”, in The Last Essays of Elia. […], London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 10:",
"text": "A Poor Relation—is the most irrelevant thing in nature,— […] —a fly in your ointment,—a mote in your eye,— […] —the ounce of sour in a pound of sweet.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1884 March, “Flies in the Ointment”, in T[homas] De Witt Talmage, editor, Frank Leslie’s Sunday Magazine, volume XV, number 3, New York, N.Y.: Frank Leslie’s Publishing House, […], →OCLC, page 302, column 2:",
"text": "Not one moment are we to be indolently reconciled to this ever-haunting imperfection of our life-work; but the work itself must be patiently surveyed in its true character. Nothing is gained by pretending there are no flies in the ointment.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1920 March – 1921 February, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “Work Wanted”, in Indiscretions of Archie, New York, N.Y.: A. L. Burt Company, publishers […], published 1921, →OCLC, page 28:",
"text": "Nothing, of course, in this world is perfect; and, rosy as were the glasses through which Archie looked on his new surroundings, he had to admit that there was one flaw, one fly in the ointment, one individual caterpillar in the salad.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1973, David Wevill, “Where the Arrow Falls”, in Other Names for the Heart: New and Selected Poems 1964–1984, Toronto, Ont.: Exile Editions, published 1985, →ISBN, page 63:",
"text": "Our gods are the unaccountable, uncontainable facts, the flies in the ointment.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2003, Ron Ross, Bummy Davis vs. Murder, Inc.: The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Mafia and an Ill-fated Prizefighter, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, →ISBN, page 287:",
"text": "Bummy Davis is no longer a pugilist. Willie is very aware of this fact and lets Johnny Attell know that there is a fly in the ointment, and Johnny, who is a very shrewd article, has his chauffeur drive him to Bradford Street so he can change the kid's mind.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2007, Mary G. Hurd, “The Mainstream”, in Women Directors and Their Films, Westport, Conn.: Praeger Publishers, Greenwood Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 22:",
"text": "The flies in the ointment are that Harry is a commitment-phobe, and the young doctor, Julian (Keanu Reeves), who is half Erica's age, is smitten with her. Naturally, the obstacles are overcome, and the happy pair is reunited, in a validation of middle-aged romance.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2020 October 31, Vildana Hajric, quoting Yousef Abbasi, “Tech Rout Sends Stocks to Worst Week Since March: Markets Wrap”, in Bloomberg News, archived from the original on 2020-11-05:",
"text": "Today's action is a reminder of just how fickle markets can be. The earnings themselves were not awful, but the market has priced tech to near perfection and thus one fly – maybe even a fruit fly – in the ointment could perpetuate a sell-off.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2023 August 11, Nicola Davis, “Scientists may be on brink of discovering fifth force of nature”, in The Guardian:",
"text": "But Patel said there was a “fly in the ointment”, noting that between the first results and the new data, uncertainty has increased around the theoretical prediction of the frequency.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2024 November 13, Paul Bigland, “Much to admire... but pockets of neglect”, in RAIL, number 1022, page 49:",
"text": "But there is one fly in the ointment, which is only too evident at Queen Street and Central... buddleia.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
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"Something (especially a minor thing) which ruins or spoils everything else, or makes it less pleasant; a nuisance or problem; a disagreeable or unpleasant detail."
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"(idiomatic) Something (especially a minor thing) which ruins or spoils everything else, or makes it less pleasant; a nuisance or problem; a disagreeable or unpleasant detail."
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"word": "turd in the punchbowl"
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{
"code": "be",
"lang": "Belarusian",
"roman": "lýžka dzjóhcju ŭ bóčcy mjódu",
"sense": "something which ruins or spoils everything else, or makes it less pleasant",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "лы́жка дзёгцю ў бо́чцы мёду"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"sense": "something which ruins or spoils everything else, or makes it less pleasant",
"word": "金玉其外，敗絮其中"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"sense": "something which ruins or spoils everything else, or makes it less pleasant",
"word": "金玉其外"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "jīnyù qíwài, bàixù qízhōng",
"sense": "something which ruins or spoils everything else, or makes it less pleasant",
"word": "败絮其中"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"note": "美中不足 (měizhōngbùzú, literally “almost perfect”)",
"sense": "something which ruins or spoils everything else, or makes it less pleasant"
},
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"code": "cs",
"lang": "Czech",
"sense": "something which ruins or spoils everything else, or makes it less pleasant",
"word": "vada na kráse"
},
{
"code": "da",
"lang": "Danish",
"sense": "something which ruins or spoils everything else, or makes it less pleasant",
"tags": [
"neuter"
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"word": "hår i suppen"
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{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "something which ruins or spoils everything else, or makes it less pleasant",
"word": "haar in de boter"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "something which ruins or spoils everything else, or makes it less pleasant",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "couille dans le pâté"
},
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"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "something which ruins or spoils everything else, or makes it less pleasant",
"tags": [
"feminine",
"vulgar"
],
"word": "couille dans le potage"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "something which ruins or spoils everything else, or makes it less pleasant",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "hic"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "something which ruins or spoils everything else, or makes it less pleasant",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "os"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "something which ruins or spoils everything else, or makes it less pleasant",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "problème"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "something which ruins or spoils everything else, or makes it less pleasant",
"tags": [
"neuter"
],
"word": "Haar in der Suppe"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "something which ruins or spoils everything else, or makes it less pleasant",
"tags": [
"feminine"
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"word": "łyżka dziegciu w beczce miodu"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"note": "ло́жка дёгтя f (lóžka djógtja, literally “a spoonful of tar”)",
"sense": "something which ruins or spoils everything else, or makes it less pleasant"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"note": "ло́жка дёгтя в бо́чке мёда f (lóžka djógtja v bóčke mjóda, literally “a spoonful of tar in a barrel of honey”)",
"sense": "something which ruins or spoils everything else, or makes it less pleasant"
},
{
"code": "sh",
"lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
"sense": "something which ruins or spoils everything else, or makes it less pleasant",
"tags": [
"Cyrillic",
"feminine"
],
"word": "муха у јухи"
},
{
"code": "sh",
"lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
"sense": "something which ruins or spoils everything else, or makes it less pleasant",
"tags": [
"Cyrillic",
"feminine"
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"word": "мува у супи"
},
{
"code": "sh",
"lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
"sense": "something which ruins or spoils everything else, or makes it less pleasant",
"tags": [
"Roman",
"feminine"
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"word": "muha u juhi"
},
{
"code": "sh",
"lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
"sense": "something which ruins or spoils everything else, or makes it less pleasant",
"tags": [
"Roman",
"feminine"
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"word": "muva u supi"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "something which ruins or spoils everything else, or makes it less pleasant",
"word": "smolk i glädjebägaren"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "something which ruins or spoils everything else, or makes it less pleasant",
"word": "(en droppe) malört i glädjebägaren"
},
{
"code": "uk",
"lang": "Ukrainian",
"note": "ло́жка дьо́гтю в бо́чці ме́ду (lóžka dʹóhtju v bóčci médu, literally “a spoonful of tar in a barrel of honey”)",
"sense": "something which ruins or spoils everything else, or makes it less pleasant"
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],
"wikipedia": [
"Ecclesiastes"
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"sounds": [
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"ipa": "/ˈflaɪ ɪn ði ˈɔɪntm(ə)nt/",
"tags": [
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"ipa": "/ˈflaɪ ən ði ˈɔɪn(t)m(ə)nt/",
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"word": "fly in the ointment"
}
{
"etymology_text": "A reference to Ecclesiastes 10:1 in the Bible (King James Version; spelling modernized): “Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour: so doeth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour.”",
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"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
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"word": "ghost at the feast"
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"ref": "1807, [Edward Wesley Hare], “Letter V”, in Genuine Methodism Acquitted, and Spurious Methodism Condemned; […] , Rochdale, Lancashire: […] J. Hartley; […], →OCLC, paragraph 5, page 75:",
"text": "And yet, in truth, he was not then a child of God. His pride and uncharitableness, were flies in the ointment.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "[1833, Elia [pseudonym; Charles Lamb], “Poor Relations”, in The Last Essays of Elia. […], London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 10:",
"text": "A Poor Relation—is the most irrelevant thing in nature,— […] —a fly in your ointment,—a mote in your eye,— […] —the ounce of sour in a pound of sweet.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1884 March, “Flies in the Ointment”, in T[homas] De Witt Talmage, editor, Frank Leslie’s Sunday Magazine, volume XV, number 3, New York, N.Y.: Frank Leslie’s Publishing House, […], →OCLC, page 302, column 2:",
"text": "Not one moment are we to be indolently reconciled to this ever-haunting imperfection of our life-work; but the work itself must be patiently surveyed in its true character. Nothing is gained by pretending there are no flies in the ointment.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1920 March – 1921 February, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “Work Wanted”, in Indiscretions of Archie, New York, N.Y.: A. L. Burt Company, publishers […], published 1921, →OCLC, page 28:",
"text": "Nothing, of course, in this world is perfect; and, rosy as were the glasses through which Archie looked on his new surroundings, he had to admit that there was one flaw, one fly in the ointment, one individual caterpillar in the salad.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1973, David Wevill, “Where the Arrow Falls”, in Other Names for the Heart: New and Selected Poems 1964–1984, Toronto, Ont.: Exile Editions, published 1985, →ISBN, page 63:",
"text": "Our gods are the unaccountable, uncontainable facts, the flies in the ointment.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2003, Ron Ross, Bummy Davis vs. Murder, Inc.: The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Mafia and an Ill-fated Prizefighter, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, →ISBN, page 287:",
"text": "Bummy Davis is no longer a pugilist. Willie is very aware of this fact and lets Johnny Attell know that there is a fly in the ointment, and Johnny, who is a very shrewd article, has his chauffeur drive him to Bradford Street so he can change the kid's mind.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2007, Mary G. Hurd, “The Mainstream”, in Women Directors and Their Films, Westport, Conn.: Praeger Publishers, Greenwood Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 22:",
"text": "The flies in the ointment are that Harry is a commitment-phobe, and the young doctor, Julian (Keanu Reeves), who is half Erica's age, is smitten with her. Naturally, the obstacles are overcome, and the happy pair is reunited, in a validation of middle-aged romance.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2020 October 31, Vildana Hajric, quoting Yousef Abbasi, “Tech Rout Sends Stocks to Worst Week Since March: Markets Wrap”, in Bloomberg News, archived from the original on 2020-11-05:",
"text": "Today's action is a reminder of just how fickle markets can be. The earnings themselves were not awful, but the market has priced tech to near perfection and thus one fly – maybe even a fruit fly – in the ointment could perpetuate a sell-off.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2023 August 11, Nicola Davis, “Scientists may be on brink of discovering fifth force of nature”, in The Guardian:",
"text": "But Patel said there was a “fly in the ointment”, noting that between the first results and the new data, uncertainty has increased around the theoretical prediction of the frequency.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2024 November 13, Paul Bigland, “Much to admire... but pockets of neglect”, in RAIL, number 1022, page 49:",
"text": "But there is one fly in the ointment, which is only too evident at Queen Street and Central... buddleia.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
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"Something (especially a minor thing) which ruins or spoils everything else, or makes it less pleasant; a nuisance or problem; a disagreeable or unpleasant detail."
],
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"(idiomatic) Something (especially a minor thing) which ruins or spoils everything else, or makes it less pleasant; a nuisance or problem; a disagreeable or unpleasant detail."
],
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{
"tags": [
"slang",
"vulgar"
],
"word": "turd in the punchbowl"
},
{
"word": "worm in the apple"
},
{
"word": "fly in the buttermilk"
}
],
"tags": [
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"wikipedia": [
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"ipa": "/ˈflaɪ ɪn ði ˈɔɪntm(ə)nt/",
"tags": [
"Received-Pronunciation"
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{
"ipa": "/ˈflaɪ ən ði ˈɔɪn(t)m(ə)nt/",
"tags": [
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"translations": [
{
"code": "be",
"lang": "Belarusian",
"roman": "lýžka dzjóhcju ŭ bóčcy mjódu",
"sense": "something which ruins or spoils everything else, or makes it less pleasant",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "лы́жка дзёгцю ў бо́чцы мёду"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"sense": "something which ruins or spoils everything else, or makes it less pleasant",
"word": "金玉其外，敗絮其中"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"sense": "something which ruins or spoils everything else, or makes it less pleasant",
"word": "金玉其外"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "jīnyù qíwài, bàixù qízhōng",
"sense": "something which ruins or spoils everything else, or makes it less pleasant",
"word": "败絮其中"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"note": "美中不足 (měizhōngbùzú, literally “almost perfect”)",
"sense": "something which ruins or spoils everything else, or makes it less pleasant"
},
{
"code": "cs",
"lang": "Czech",
"sense": "something which ruins or spoils everything else, or makes it less pleasant",
"word": "vada na kráse"
},
{
"code": "da",
"lang": "Danish",
"sense": "something which ruins or spoils everything else, or makes it less pleasant",
"tags": [
"neuter"
],
"word": "hår i suppen"
},
{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "something which ruins or spoils everything else, or makes it less pleasant",
"word": "haar in de boter"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "something which ruins or spoils everything else, or makes it less pleasant",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "couille dans le pâté"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "something which ruins or spoils everything else, or makes it less pleasant",
"tags": [
"feminine",
"vulgar"
],
"word": "couille dans le potage"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "something which ruins or spoils everything else, or makes it less pleasant",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "hic"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "something which ruins or spoils everything else, or makes it less pleasant",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "os"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "something which ruins or spoils everything else, or makes it less pleasant",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "problème"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "something which ruins or spoils everything else, or makes it less pleasant",
"tags": [
"neuter"
],
"word": "Haar in der Suppe"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "something which ruins or spoils everything else, or makes it less pleasant",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "łyżka dziegciu w beczce miodu"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"note": "ло́жка дёгтя f (lóžka djógtja, literally “a spoonful of tar”)",
"sense": "something which ruins or spoils everything else, or makes it less pleasant"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"note": "ло́жка дёгтя в бо́чке мёда f (lóžka djógtja v bóčke mjóda, literally “a spoonful of tar in a barrel of honey”)",
"sense": "something which ruins or spoils everything else, or makes it less pleasant"
},
{
"code": "sh",
"lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
"sense": "something which ruins or spoils everything else, or makes it less pleasant",
"tags": [
"Cyrillic",
"feminine"
],
"word": "муха у јухи"
},
{
"code": "sh",
"lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
"sense": "something which ruins or spoils everything else, or makes it less pleasant",
"tags": [
"Cyrillic",
"feminine"
],
"word": "мува у супи"
},
{
"code": "sh",
"lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
"sense": "something which ruins or spoils everything else, or makes it less pleasant",
"tags": [
"Roman",
"feminine"
],
"word": "muha u juhi"
},
{
"code": "sh",
"lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
"sense": "something which ruins or spoils everything else, or makes it less pleasant",
"tags": [
"Roman",
"feminine"
],
"word": "muva u supi"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "something which ruins or spoils everything else, or makes it less pleasant",
"word": "smolk i glädjebägaren"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "something which ruins or spoils everything else, or makes it less pleasant",
"word": "(en droppe) malört i glädjebägaren"
},
{
"code": "uk",
"lang": "Ukrainian",
"note": "ло́жка дьо́гтю в бо́чці ме́ду (lóžka dʹóhtju v bóčci médu, literally “a spoonful of tar in a barrel of honey”)",
"sense": "something which ruins or spoils everything else, or makes it less pleasant"
}
],
"word": "fly in the ointment"
}
Download raw JSONL data for fly in the ointment meaning in English (11.1kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-28 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-11-21 using wiktextract (65a6e81 and 0dbea76). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.