bad penny

a bad penny

A person with no value. Typically used in the proverb "A bad penny always turns up." A: "I don't think we'll see Todd again now that he's been disgraced at work." B: "You never know—a bad penny always turns up."
See also: bad, penny
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

bad penny

a worthless person. Wally is a bad penny. Someday he'll end up in jail. My little brother is a real bad penny. Every time he shows up, he wants to borrow money.
See also: bad, penny
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • teach a man to fish
  • it takes a village
  • village
  • beget
  • tomorrow never comes
  • a man is judged by the company he keeps
  • a man is known by the company he keeps
  • a rotten apple spoils the (whole) barrel
  • a rotten apple spoils the (whole) bunch
  • a bad apple spoils the (whole) barrel
References in periodicals archive
Chain-smoking Dot has had a hard life - not helped by Nick turning up like a bad penny. John Altman filmed his final scenes as Nick in 2015 which saw his longsuffering Ma allowing him to die from an overdose.
My problem is, my ex has turned up like a bad penny, wanting to see me and talk about what happened.
Antrobus in a high school production of The Skin of Our Teeth ("I can't imagine what it must've been like as a parent to come to that production," she remembers, laughing), and dramaturging Mac Wellman's Bad Penny at Bow Bridge when she was an undergrad at Sonoma State University in California studying business administration and theatre.
A lively romp of a read with improbable ghosts and companions including Stiffkey, Bad Penny and Goodmourning.
Maggie's mother Diana turns up like the proverbial bad penny, having put up the bail when Ben was arrested.
secretdiner.org) SD: Chefs know that, like a bad penny, I can turn up any time.
The rocker, 57, said: "Penelope is a friend - of course I had to make sure this man I so admired on screen was up to scratch to date the 'Bad Penny', as she's known in Ireland.
A spokesman for Bad Penny Productions said: "In You, Me and Him we meet a lesbian couple, Olivia and Alex (Lucy Punch and Faye Marsay) who, despite their age difference, are very much in love.
A couple of these met in the Naas handicap won by Intrepid Prince two weeks ago, and marginal preference is for the Ross O'Sullivan-trained Bad Penny.
THIS question pops up like a bad penny whenever politicians are caught touting for money.
Bowen-Bravery survived many operations to the city in his Lancaster J-Jig, which he had nicknamed Bad Penny II, an operation which had claimed the lives of many of the Bomber Squadron before him.
Like Hannibal | James as "Red" Lecter, Red has been on the FBI's most wanted list for ever, but turns up like a bad penny offering to help catch a terrorist on one condition ...
Like Hannibal James as Raymond "Red" Lecter, Red has been on the FBI's most wanted list for ever, but turns up like a bad penny offering to help catch a terrorist on one condition ...
A Mark I Lancaster type 683, serial number NX579, "Bad Penny" was a name assigned to her for just this mission because, after all "a bad penny always turns up." She'd been built in the second production batch of 50 aircraft at Austin Motors Limited, Longbridge, Birmingham, in early 1945.
Like some kind of biennial flower - or bad penny, depending on your point of view - the discussion of expanding gambling in Texas has popped up at the edges of the legislative session yet again.