- (in the Anglican Church) an assistant to a vicar (= a priest, who is in charge of the church or churches in a particular area)Topics Religion and festivalsc2, Jobsc2
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Idioms
See curate in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionarythe/a curate’s egg
- (British English) something that has some good parts and some bad ones
- Their investment plan shows the familiar curate's egg pattern of some bits doing well and others doing badly.
CultureThe phrase comes from a cartoon in the British magazine Punch in 1895, in which a nervous young curate is having breakfast with a bishop. The bishop says 'I'm afraid you've got a bad egg there' and the curate, not wanting to upset the bishop, replies, 'Oh no, my Lord! … Parts of it are excellent!’
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