Something which ruins or spoils everything else; a nuisance or problem; an unpleasant or disagreeable detail.
It's a lovely plan. The fly in the ointment is Andrew Ackner.
A small disturbance or irritation which can spoil ones pleasure and excitement
The people were going crazy in the musical concert, but sudden lights off were the fly in the ointment.
Translation
Find a translation for the fly in the ointment phrase in other languages:
Select another language:
- - Select -
- 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
- 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
- Español (Spanish)
- Esperanto (Esperanto)
- 日本語 (Japanese)
- Português (Portuguese)
- Deutsch (German)
- العربية (Arabic)
- Français (French)
- Русский (Russian)
- ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
- 한국어 (Korean)
- עברית (Hebrew)
- Gaeilge (Irish)
- Українська (Ukrainian)
- اردو (Urdu)
- Magyar (Hungarian)
- मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
- Indonesia (Indonesian)
- Italiano (Italian)
- தமிழ் (Tamil)
- Türkçe (Turkish)
- తెలుగు (Telugu)
- ภาษาไทย (Thai)
- Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
- Čeština (Czech)
- Polski (Polish)
- Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
- Românește (Romanian)
- Nederlands (Dutch)
- Ελληνικά (Greek)
- Latinum (Latin)
- Svenska (Swedish)
- Dansk (Danish)
- Suomi (Finnish)
- فارسی (Persian)
- ייִדיש (Yiddish)
- հայերեն (Armenian)
- Norsk (Norwegian)
- English (English)
Nearby phrases
Some more phrases from our dictionary similar to fly in the ointment
a fly by nighta fly in the ointmentbar flycrane flydon't drive faster than your guardian a…fly byfly byfly by the seat of one's pantsfly in the face offly like a rockfly lowfly offfly off at a tangentfly off the handlefly off the handleFly Off the Handlefly off the shelvesfly on the wallfly outfly outfly outfly out of the trapsfly the coopFly the Coop
Citation
Use the citation below to add this fly in the ointment definition to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"fly in the ointment." Phrases.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 18 Dec. 2024. <https://www.phrases.com/idioms/fly-in-the-ointment>.
Powered by CITE.ME
Discuss this fly in the ointment phrase with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In