fly in the ointment

Language: en

Meaning: ; (idiomatic)Something (especially aminorthing) whichruinsorspoilseverythingelse, ormakesit lesspleasant; anuisanceorproblem; adisagreeableorunpleasantdetail.Synonyms:(slang, vulgar)turd in the punchbowl,worm in the apple,fly in the buttermilk1807,[Edward Wesley Hare], “Letter V”, inGenuine Methodism Acquitted, and Spurious Methodism Condemned;[…], Rochdale, Lancashire:[…]J. Hartley;[…],→OCLC, paragraph 5,page75:And yet, in truth, he was not then a child of God. His pride and uncharitableness, wereflies in the ointment.[1833, Elia [pseudonym;Charles Lamb], “Poor Relations”, inThe Last Essays of Elia.[…], London:Edward Moxon,[…],→OCLC,page10:A Poor Relation—is the most irrelevant thing in nature,—[…]—afly in your ointment,—a mote in your eye,—[…]—the ounce of sour in a pound of sweet.]1884March, “Flies in the Ointment”, inT[homas] De Witt Talmage, editor,Frank Leslie’s Sunday Magazine, volume XV, number 3, New York, N.Y.:Frank Leslie’s Publishing House,[…],→OCLC,page302, column 2: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 noflies in the ointment.1920March –1921February,P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “Work Wanted”, inIndiscretions of Archie, New York, N.Y.:A. L. Burt Company, publishers[…], published1921,→OCLC,page28: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, onefly in the ointment, one individual caterpillar in the salad.1973,David Wevill, “Where the Arrow Falls”, inOther Names for the Heart: New and Selected Poems 1964–1984, Toronto, Ont.:Exile Editions, published1985,→ISBN,page63:Our gods are the unaccountable, uncontainable facts, theflies in the ointment.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, page287:Bummy Davisis no longer a pugilist. Willie is very aware of this fact and lets Johnny Attell know that there is afly 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.2007, Mary G. Hurd, “The Mainstream”, inWomen Directors and Their Films, Westport, Conn.: Praeger Publishers,Greenwood Publishing Group,→ISBN,page22:Theflies in the ointmentare 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.2020October 31, Vildana Hajric, quoting Yousef Abbasi, “Tech Rout Sends Stocks to Worst Week Since March: Markets Wrap”, inBloomberg News‎[1], archived fromthe originalon5 November 2020: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 onefly– maybe even a fruit fly –in the ointmentcould perpetuate a sell-off.2023August 11, Nicola Davis, “Scientists may be on brink of discovering fifth force of nature”, inThe Guardian‎[2]: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.2024November 13, Paul Bigland, “Much to admire... but pockets of neglect”, inRAIL, number1022, page49:But there is onefly in the ointment, which is only too evident at Queen Street and Central... buddleia.

Examples:

EN: I'm the fly in the ointment, the uninvited guest.
ES: Soy la mosca en la sopa, el huésped inesperado.
EN: I grinned and tried to join in, but somehow there was a fly in the ointment.
ES: ¡Pícaros! - Sonreí e intenté unirme al alboroto.
EN: Is there a fly in the ointment?
ES: ¿Hay algún contratiempo?
EN: - There's only one fly in the ointment.
ES: - Sólo hay un inconveniente.
EN: Just the fly in the ointment, Hans.
ES: Tan sólo un inconveniente, Hans.
EN: Unfortunately, there was a fly in the ointment.
ES: Lamentablemente, había una mosca en el ungüento.
EN: That's the abnormality. That's the fly in the ointment, if you will.
ES: Son anormalidades, como un grano de arena en un mecanismo.
EN: John Bly said you'd be a fly in the ointment.
ES: John Bly dijo que serías una molestia.
EN: Hastings was the fly in the ointment.
ES: Hastings era el único problema.
EN: He was a fly in the ointment.
ES: Era como una mosca cojonera.
EN: Unfortunately, there is one fly in the ointment.
ES: Lo malo es que hay un pequeño problema.
EN: What's the fly in the ointment concerning the consciousness transfer?
ES: ¿Bien que por mal nos venga. concerniente al traslado de conciencia?
EN: Just a fly in the ointment.
ES: Sólo una mosca en la sopa.
EN: A fly in the ointment.
ES: La mosca en la sopa.
EN: I'm a fly in the ointment.
ES: Yo molesto a mucha gente, he arriesgado mucho.

Note: the examples for non latin scripts have a high likelihood of mistakes, we do not own any of this data and it is sourced from Wiktionary, the NLLB database and Opensubtitles. Please help us improve this by contributing correct examples. We will be working to fix this issue over time however it is a bigger issue due to the the difficulties in dealing with non latin scripts and grammatical structures(non-romantic/european languages have lower resources as well ).

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Sourced from Wiktionary