don't throw the baby out with the bathwater
don't throw the baby out with the bathwater
proverb Don't discard something valuable or important while disposing of something worthless. Why are we scrapping the entire project? Come on, don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. Look, just because the program needs to be reformed doesn't mean we should dismantle it all together. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater, and all that. Yes, some changes need to be made, but don't throw the baby out with the bathwater—we've got a solid foundation here.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Prov. Do not discard something valuable in your eagerness to get rid of some useless thing associated with it. Jill: As long as I'm selling all the books Grandpa had, I might s well sell the bookcases, too. Jane: Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. You can use the bookcases for something else.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
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.”
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer