English · Idiom Candidate

turd in the punchbowl

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

Something or someone that spoils an otherwise enjoyable situation

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

một thứ gì đó làm hỏng tình huống thoải mái

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: a piece of feces in a bowl of punch

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

The news of the company's bankruptcy was a turd in the punchbowl at the office party

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (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 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “turd in the punchbowl” mean?

Something or someone that spoils an otherwise enjoyable situation Literally: a piece of feces in a bowl of punch

Is “turd in the punchbowl” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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