bathwater


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don't throw the baby out with the bathwater

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To discard something valuable or important while disposing of something considered worthless, especially an outdated idea or form of behavior.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To discard something valuable or important while disposing of something considered worthless, especially an outdated idea or form of behavior.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

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

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

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

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
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
It was like walking around the set of Shameless; FAMILY CUT PONTINS HOLIDAY SHORT OVER 'SICKENING' CHALET, INCLUDING PREVIOUS GUESTS' RUBBISH AND DIRTY BATHWATER
The result was a 10-minute spectacle of both dance and live music, a blend of Japan's traditional koto and the Philippines' kulintang, set against the backdrop of beats played by DJ Paolo Garcia and visuals from Nakano's 'Bathwater.' It was a seamless marriage of Filipino and Japanese elements fitting Nakano's cross-cultural vision.
Eiga Sai up to Aug. 29: Japanese films aim for broader global appeal
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.
Black Economic Empowerment
Dating to 1512 in Germany--the first known reference--and widely used in the United States since the 19th century, the saying refers to the old tradition of entire families having to take a bath using the same bathwater. As you can well imagine, the 16th century was a time when baths were a little hard to come by (and later on as well), and thus when a bath was procured, the entire family made sure to partake of it.
Bringing up (the CRM) baby: your CRM solution is still growing and developing--so don't stop nurturing it
To summarize, I see the effect as bathwater and the cause as the baby:
Babies and bathwater: innovating around the nature of insurance
This, he said, is throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
AIR TRANSPORT : PILOTS WANT MEPS TO REJECT FLIGHT TIMES PROPOSAL
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.
Vaginal entrapment of bathwater: a source of extra-urethral incontinence
In an effort to eliminate advertising clutter, such as hand-painted window signs, the city overreached and threw the baby out with the bathwater."
Irving bans apartment-building pole signs
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.
Now, a novel way to quantify fragrance allergens found in baby bathwater
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.
Street: our sport has to better explain its 'quirks'
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.
The great tradition; classic readings on what it means to be an educated human being
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.
Relational theory and the practice of psychotherapy
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.
Settlement of crassostrea ariakensis larvae: effects of substrate, biofilms, sediment and adult chemical cues
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.
Barre Players explore plays of Durang
In defending our freedom, it is important not to throw out the baby with the bathwater.
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