Example: Always getting into mischief, the youth was the bad seed of a troubled family.
Origins: Biblical references to the effect of sewing seed in fields. (Source.)
Rewrites:
- a flawed seed
- a wayward seed
- a seed of no good character
- a withered planting
- a pit with no future
- a fruitless fount
- an ill-gained grain
- an unproductive kernel
- a profitless pip
Discussion: Some definitions prescribe a genetic element as the source of poor production, but the usage I’m familiar with makes no such association, unless it’s simply understood.
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