throw the baby out with the bathwater
To discard, inadvertently or through overzealousness, something valuable or essential ("the baby") in the process of removing or rejecting something unwanted or undesirable ("the bathwater").
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater when you clean your room.”
“We need to fix the software bugs, but let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater by deleting the entire program.”
“You should rewrite the confusing parts of your essay, but don't throw the baby out with the bathwater by changing your excellent main argument.”
“While the committee sought to eliminate bureaucratic waste, they risked throwing the baby out with the bathwater by dismantling the entire department's essential research functions.”
first recorded 16th c.
The phrase entered English in 1849 as a calque of the German proverb *das Kind mit dem Bade ausschütten*, translated by Thomas Carlyle in an essay on slavery. The German expression was first recorded in 1512 by Thomas Murner in his satire *Narrenbeschwörung*. It describes the specific misfortune of a person who, having finished washing a child, empties the tub so indiscriminately that the infant follows the waste water out of the window.
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babies in the eyes
The minute reflection which one sees of oneself in the eyes of another.
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baby and bathwater
Used in reference to an error in which something valuable is discarded in the process of removing or rejecting something unwanted.
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baby elephant in the room
An obvious but mostly inconsequential issue.
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baby step
A small effort made towards the completion of a much larger task.
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baby up
To treat as a baby.
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basin of gravy
[Cockney slang]baby
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be left holding the baby
To be left with the responsibility of resolving a problem.
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black babies
Third-world charities, the missions.
Last updated August 10, 2026