throw the baby out with the bathwater

Definition

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").

Etymology

Calque of German das Kind mit dem Bade ausschütten, a proverb first recorded by Thomas Murner in his satire Narrenbeschwörung (1512). First appeared in English when Thomas Carlyle translated it in an 1849 essay on slavery.

Example Sentences

• "They cancelled the entire project because the new management didn't like the prototype, but I think they threw the baby out with the bathwater."