A pig's ear
Meaning
Something that has been made or done very badly; a complete mess or failure.
Origin
The idiom "a pig's ear" doesn't have a single, dramatic historical event for its birth, but rather draws its power from a universally understood image. Imagine trying to craft something beautiful or useful from an object as crude, rough, and unappealing as a pig's ear—it's an impossible task. The phrase brilliantly captures the essence of a botched job or a terrible mess, implying that the resulting object or situation is just as ugly and ill-formed as that unlikely raw material. Its vivid, almost visceral imagery made it a popular and punchy descriptor, particularly in 20th-century British English, for anything that has been done clumsily, poorly, or completely ruined.
Examples
- He tried to bake a fancy cake for the party, but he made a real pig's ear of it.
- The new public transport schedule is a complete pig's ear; it makes no sense at all.