throwing the baby out with the bathwater
Losing the essential
Throwing the baby out with the bathwater means discarding something valuable along with something unwanted.
The idiom warns against overreaction—in trying to eliminate a problem, you lose what matters: We shouldn't throw the baby out with the bathwater by canceling the whole program over one flaw.
The image is of emptying a washtub so hastily that the infant goes with the dirty water.
- cutting off one's nose to spite one's faceHarming yourself to harm another
- knee-jerk reactionInstinctive, unconsidered response
- overkillUnnecessary additional effort
- mismanagementIncompetent handling of responsibilities
- rashnessImprudent haste in action
critical thinking · prudence · wisdom · negligence · shortsightedness · blind spot · collateral damage · cost-benefit analysis · wastefulness · forfeiture · impulsivity · jumping to conclusions · recklessness · evaluation · domino effect · slippery slope · strategic planning · overreaction
throwing the baby out with the bathwaterdiscernment
Keen perception and judgment
sifting · fine-tuning · discriminating · surgical precision · selective
throwing the baby out with the bathwatersurgical correction
Procedure to fix anatomy
throwing the baby out with the bathwatersurgical strike
Targeted operation minimizing damage