Definition of "fly in the ointment" []

• Something which ruins or spoils everything else; a nuisance or problem; an unpleasant or disagreeable detail. (noun)

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• "True, there had been compensations in the delectable shape of Lakshmibai, Rani of Jhansi, and a Victoria Cross and knighthood at the end of the day, and the only fly in the ointment as I rolled down to Calcutta had been the discovery that during my absence from England some scribbling swine had published his reminiscences of Rugby School, with me as the villain of the piece."
• "The fly in the ointment came from a different source: Gaius Scribonius Curio, aged eighteen, announced that he wouldn’t be moving house; he was going east to join Mark Antony."
• "The one fly in the ointment was the pressure to pile up qualifications and publications once she decided to go for her Ph.D. and become a professor."