BOTTOM OF THE BARREL Definition & Meaning

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bottom of the barrel

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Idioms and Phrases

The least desirable, the dregs, as in The nominating committee had trouble finding candidates; they were settling for the bottom of the barrel . The phrase often occurs in scrape the bottom of the barrel , meaning “to use the least desirable elements” (because one has no choice), as in Bringing up that minor legal point proves that you're scraping the bottom of the barrel . This metaphor for the sediment left by wine in a barrel was already used by Cicero to describe the lowest elements of Roman society. [First half of 1900s]

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

Brand, however, represents a disturbing twist to this saga: the willingness, in the era of Donald Trump, of right-wing Christians to scrape the absolute bottom of the barrel to get this validation.

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I don't think we thought, however, that he'd stoop so low as to choose someone as unqualified as Pete Hegseth for the important job of defense secretary or RFK Jr. for Health and Human Services but we probably should have known he'd have to scrape the bottom of the barrel to ensure the extreme loyalty he required.

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The horror space does not necessarily demand ingenuity; there’s an audience for even the worst drivel at the bottom of the barrel.

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Fulton recalled that Shoup used to joke that he came upon parking as his life’s work because it was “the bottom of the barrel.”

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Shopping as a plus-size person is hard enough; add necessity to the equation, and suddenly you’re left buying from the bottom of the barrel.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

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