throw the baby out with the bath(water)
- throw the baby out with the bath(water)
throw the baby out† with the bath(water)
Fig. to dispose of the good while eagerly trying to get rid of the bad. (Fig. on the image of carelessly emptying a tub of both the water inside as well as the baby that was being washed.) •
In her haste to talk down a project that had only a few disagreeable points, she has thrown the baby out with the bathwater.
•
Hasty action on this major spending bill will result in throwing out the baby with the bath.
Dictionary of American idioms.
2013.
Look at other dictionaries:
Throw out the baby with the bath water — is an idiomatic expression used to suggest an avoidable error in which something good is eliminated when trying to get rid of something bad,[1] or in other words, rejecting the essential along with the inessential.[2] A slightly different… … Wikipedia
throw the baby out with the bath water — If you get rid of useful things when discarding inessential things, you throw the baby out with the bath water … The small dictionary of idiomes
throw the baby out with the bath water — throw away something good with the waste, discard everything Keep the good subjects when you revise the course. Don t throw the baby out with the bath water! … English idioms
throw the baby out with the bath water — to get rid of the good parts as well as the bad parts of something when you are trying to improve it. I don t think we should throw the baby out with the bath water. There are some good features of the present system that I think we should retain … New idioms dictionary
throw the baby out with the bath water — If you get rid of useful things when discarding inessential things, you throw the baby out with the bath water. (Dorking School Dictionary) … English Idioms & idiomatic expressions
Throw the baby out with the bath-water — If you get rid of useful things when discarding inessential things, you throw the baby out with the bath water … Dictionary of English idioms
throw out the baby with the bath water — to lose the good parts when you get rid of the bad parts of something. You can t close the airport because one airline has problems that s just throwing out the baby with the bath water … New idioms dictionary
throw the baby out with the bathwater — reject all of something because part of it is faulty When they decided to get rid of all of the computers because one was broken it was like throwing the baby out with the bath water. They only needed one new computer … Idioms and examples
don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater — The proverb is often used allusively, especially in the metaphorical phrase to throw (or empty) out the baby with the bathwater. Known in German from at least as early as the start of the sixteenth century; Cf. 1610 J. KEPLER Tertius Interveniens … Proverbs new dictionary
bath water — also bathwater N UNCOUNT Your bath water is the water in which you sit or lie when you have a bath. to throw the baby out with the bath water → see baby He has to share his bath water with the other three children in the family … English dictionary
bath·water — /ˈbæθˌwɑːtɚ, Brit ˈbɑːθˌwɔːtə/ noun [noncount] : water used for a bath throw out the baby with the bathwater see ↑baby, 1 … Useful english dictionary
