IdiomFood & Drink
English
Englishlay an egg
Meaning: To do something embarrassing.
Example: “His joke about the boss laid an egg at the office party.”
Origin: American theater and entertainment slang from the 1920s, for a show that flopped. It may come from cricket, where a batsman out without scoring had a "duck's egg," a zero. Variety famously used it in its headline after the 1929 crash: "Wall St. Lays an Egg."
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