a bad workman blames his tools
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Incompetent people blame external factors for their mistakes
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
Người không có năng lực thường đổ lỗi cho yếu tố bên ngoài về sai lầm của mình
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: a worker blaming their equipment
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Sources & notes
Listed on Wikipedia “List of proverbial phrases” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “a bad workman blames his tools” mean?
Incompetent people blame external factors for their mistakes Literally: a worker blaming their equipment
Is “a bad workman blames his tools” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.