> as lemmas

1542 N. Udall tr. Erasmus Apophthegmes f. 272 Persones comyng in with their fiue egges, how that Sylla had geuen ouer his office of Dictature.

1551 R. Robinson tr. T. More Vtopia sig. Evi An other cummeth in wyth hys v. egges.

1601 B. Jonson Every Man in his Humor iii. iii. sig. G3 I haue egges on the spit; I cannot go yet, sir. View more context for this quotation

a1616 W. Shakespeare Winter's Tale (1623) i. ii. 163 Mine honest Friend, Will you take Egges for Money? View more context for this quotation

1670 G. Havers tr. G. Leti Il Cardinalismo di Santa Chiesa ii. i. 130 Contented to take Eggs (as it were) for their money.

1711 W. King et al. Vindic. Sacheverell sig. Aiv I have been such a profligate Liver, Egg, and Bird.

1733 ‘P. Drake’ Grotto (title page) Apollo's..Grotto makes them [Witts] all with egg.

a1734 R. North Examen (1740) 324 This very circumstance..broke the egg..in the Pockets of the Whigs.

1742 R. North & M. North Life F. North 127 This gave him Occasion..to find if any Slip had been made (for he all along trod upon Eggs).

1747 W. Gould Acct. Eng. Ants 57 Very like that of a Female Bee, Wasp, or Queen Ant, when not with Egg.

1855 ‘P. Paxton’ Capt. Priest 319 In the language of his class, the Perfect Bird generally turns out to be ‘a bad egg’.

1864 Athenæum 559/1 ‘A bad egg’,..a fellow who had not proved to be as good as his promise.

1884 W. Black Judith Shakespeare xiii, in Harper's Mag. May 954/2 I have other eggs on the spit.

1903 R. Kipling Traffics & Discov. (1904) 138 ‘Us'll find they ships!’..‘Good egg!’ quoth Moorshed.

1910 J. Galsworthy Justice 1 A real bad egg.

1914 C. Mackenzie Sinister St. II. iii. x. 711 It doesn't look a hundred quid to a tanner on his blue. Bad luck. He's a very good egg.

1914 C. Mackenzie Sinister St. II. iii. xii. 739 Oxford was divided into Bad Men and Good Eggs.

1915 D. O. Barnett Let. in In Happy Memory 56 We are going to do this regularly, and I think it is a very good egg.

1915 P. G. Wodehouse Something Fresh x. §3 ‘She isn't going to sue me for breach?’ ‘She never had any intention of doing so.’ The Hon. Frederick sank back on the pillows. ‘Good egg!’ he said with fervour.

1920 J. Galsworthy In Chancery i. xii. 100 He was a rotten egg.

1922 P. G. Wodehouse Clicking of Cuthbert x. 256 ‘Well?’ we said anxiously. ‘I like it,’ said the editor. ‘Good egg!’ we murmured.

1929 S. Aumonier Ups & Downs 418 Hullo, Pan! Good egg!

1930 E. H. Lavine Third Degree (1931) iii. 30 Occasionally, a really tough egg is trained to be a killer.

1938 P. G. Wodehouse Summer Moonshine i. 18 She's a tough egg.

1964 Sat. Night (Toronto) July 17/1 The move left many critics with egg on their faces.

1972 Times 19 Feb. 7/1 There is something reassuringly changeless about the capacity of the highest military authorities for getting egg on their faces.

1977 Times Educ. Suppl. 21 Oct. 11/2 The most immediate need is to decide why the physical measurements of the ages of the East African rocks appear to suggest such different patterns of hominid evolution from that provided by the evolution of the wild pig. In the process, many people will be discovered to have egg on their faces.

1983 ‘J. le Carré’ Little Drummer Girl x. 186 I'm just stuck there, am I, with egg on my face.

1984 Listener 15 Mar. 16/3 ‘Canadian Far East Trade Corporation’, ‘H and H Enterprises’ and ‘CMI Investments’ led the trustee to conclude that the CIA must have ‘egg on its face’ for associating with a swindler.

1985 Times 3 Jan. 13/1 BAT..succeeded in constantly getting egg on its face.