bathwater


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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.
See also: baby, bathwater, out, throw

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To discard something valuable or important while disposing of something considered worthless, especially an outdated idea or form of behavior.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

throw the baby out 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To discard something valuable or important while disposing of something considered worthless, especially an outdated idea or form of behavior.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 the baby out with the bathwater. The main reforms of the movement were desperately needed, but I'm afraid we threw the baby out with the bathwater in many cases.
See also: baby, bathwater, out, throw
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2022 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.
See also: baby, bathwater, out, throw
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

throw the baby out with the bathwater

discard something valuable along with other things that are inessential or undesirable.
This phrase is based on a German saying recorded from the early 16th century but not introduced into English until the mid 19th century, by Thomas Carlyle . He identified it as German and gave it in the form, ‘You must empty out the bathing-tub, but not the baby along with it.’
1998 New Scientist It is easy to throw out the baby with the bathwater when it comes to UFO books—there are some seriously bad titles out there.
See also: baby, bathwater, out, throw
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017

throw the ˌbaby out with the ˈbathwater

(informal) lose something that you want at the same time as you are trying to get rid of something that you do not want: It’s stupid to say that the old system of management was all bad; there were some good things about it. The baby was thrown out with the bathwater.
See also: baby, bathwater, out, throw
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017

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, to
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer
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References in periodicals archive ?
Dirty dishes and half-drunk coffee was left in the sink, the worktops were dirty, the bin was full of rubbish, the 'breezeblock' sofa bed needed scrubbing and someone else's dirty bathwater had been left in the family's bathroom when the family checked into their chalet at Southport Pontins
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He contends there is an unfortunate narrative that is gaining traction in South Africa generally and in the corporate world in particular, that BEE has been nothing but a "smoke-and-mirrors" initiative towards oligarchy, hence the chosen title: Black Economic Empowerment: 20 Years Later--The Baby and The Bathwater.
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To summarize, I see the effect as bathwater and the cause as the baby:
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This, he said, is throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
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Vaginal entrapment of bathwater or other fluids of immersion has yet to be considered in the literature as a condition that may masquerade as urinary incontinence.
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In an effort to eliminate advertising clutter, such as hand-painted window signs, the city overreached and threw the baby out with the bathwater."
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Washington, July 18 (ANI): Scientists at the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC) have devised a way to quantify the fragrance allergens found in baby bathwater.
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RACING ENTERPRISES LIMITED project manager Rod Street yesterday spoke of the need to move with the times if racing is to widen its appeal, without going as far as to "throw the baby out with the bathwater", writes Turia Tellwright.
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Gamble (history, Hillsdale College) believes that in our determination to break away from elitist schooling, we have thrown the baby out with the bathwater. This compendium provides selections from classical and medieval philosophers, starting with Plato, through Seneca, Origen, Augustine, Aquinus, Petrarch, Erasmus, Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, Milton and Edmund Burke.
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Wachtel (clinical psychology, CUNY) argues against throwing the baby out with the bathwater. He proposes the use of relational theory, a term that has yet to be firmly defined, due to its use in a number of disparate conditions.
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To test for the effects of adult chemical signals that may induce settlement, and their specificity, bathwater solutions were prepared as described in detail by Tamburri et al.
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There are times when one feels Durang is using the stage to vent his own therapeutic issues, especially actor's anxiety in "The Actor's Nightmare" and parental abuse in "Baby With the Bathwater," but for the most part he avoids soggy self-indulgence with blistering imagination.
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In defending our freedom, it is important not to throw out the baby with the bathwater.
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