THROW OUT THE BABY WITH THE BATH WATER Definition & Meaning

throw out the baby with the bath water

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Idioms and Phrases

Discard something valuable along with something not wanted. For example, I know you don't approve of that one item in the bill but we shouldn't throw out the baby with the bath water by voting the bill down . This expression, with its vivid image of a baby being tossed out with a stream of dirty water, is probably translated from a German proverb, Das Kind mit dem Bade ausschütten (“Pour the baby out with the bath”). It was first recorded in English in 1853 by Thomas Carlyle, who translated many works from German.

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

“We are all going to be offended in one way or another by something that comes out of this museum because we are so different in so many ways. But we cannot throw out the baby with the bath water,” she said.

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It is our right to sometimes criticize, but let’s not “throw out the baby with the bath water.”

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“But they don’t want to throw out the baby with the bath water, whether it’s academic exchange, climate change work, global health or working on North Korea.”

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Pieter Emmer, a professor emeritus of colonial history at Leiden University cautioned that while expanding our perspectives on other aspects of history is important, we should not “throw out the baby with the bath water. Because that’s what’s happening now.”

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At what point do you throw out the baby with the bath water?

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

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