Glossary entry

Portuguese term or phrase:

"Cortar a própria carne"

English translation:

Weed out the bad apples

Added to glossary by Susana Alves
Dec 29, 2009 15:19
14 yrs ago
Portuguese term

"Cortar a própria carne"

Portuguese to English Other Idioms / Maxims / Sayings "Cortar a própria carne"
Em casos de corrupção, a corporação "corta a própria carne".
They investigate their own.
Something similar in English?
Change log

Dec 30, 2009 20:02: Susana Alves Created KOG entry

Proposed translations

+1
21 hrs
Selected

Weed out the bad apples

weed out - Fig. to remove someone or something unwanted or undesirable from a group or collection. (Fig. on removing weeds from the soil.) We had to weed the less productive workers out one by one. The auditions were held to weed out the actors with the least ability. I'm going through my books to weed out those that I don't need anymore.

bad apple - The full form of this proverb is 'one bad apple spoils the barrel', meaning that a bad person, policy, etc, can ruin everything around it.

If you prefer not to mix two idioms then just weed out the corrupt.
Example sentence:

Corporations prefer to weed out the bad apples themselves.

The corporation will weed out the corrupt employees.

Peer comment(s):

agree Fernando Okabe Biazibeti
1 hr
Thank you and Happy New Year
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
15 mins

(the corporation) deals with its own dirty laundry

NYCHA Public Housing Spotlight Issue 10
Oct 25, 1998 ... You tell us of idiotic or corrupt goings on in the other Board members camp that ... I can remember as a child my mother hanging the wash out our kitchen ... the Housing Authority should deal with Its own DIRTY LAUNDRY, ...
www.tenant.net/nycha/pub-hous/pub-hous-10.html
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1 hr

cut your own flesh

THOUGHTS AND PHILOSOPHY OF JOSE MARTI CUBAN PATRIOT AND LIBERATOR
"The live and freedom of every country requires battle and Deaths.- And if necessary, you must cut your own FLESH and give your heart and blood to achieve this."

maybe : "trim your own fat" in this case
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2 hrs

cut one's throat / cut your own throat

in English
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