throw out the baby with the bathwater, to/don't
throw out the baby with the bathwater
To discard something valuable or important while disposing of something considered worthless, especially an outdated idea or form of behavior. The phrase is often used in the negative as a warning against such thoughtless behavior. Why are we scrapping the entire project? Come on, don't throw out the baby with the bathwater. The main reforms of the movement were desperately needed, but I'm afraid we threw out the baby with the bathwater in many cases.
See also: baby, bathwater, out, throw
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
throw out the baby with the bathwater, to/don't
To discard the good along with the bad. The source of this expression may be a German proverb, Das Kind mit dem Bade ausschütten (Pouring the baby out with the bath), and its vivid image of upending a small tub clearly caught on. It appeared in English in 1853, possibly as a translation from the German by Thomas Carlyle, and was favored by George Bernard Shaw, who used it in several books, including Parents and Children (1914): “We are apt to make the usual blunder of emptying the baby out with the bath.”
See also: baby, out, throw
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
- a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush
- a straw will show which way the wind blows
- a recipe for disaster
- a recipe for disaster, success, etc.
- a recipe for (something)
- a fast talker
- a horse of another
- a horse of another color
- a horse of another colour
- a/the feel of (something)