| 单词 | to throw the baby out with the bath |
| 释义 | > as lemmasto throw the baby out with the bath P2. to throw the baby out with the bath (now usually to throw the baby out with the bathwater) and variants: to reject what is essential or beneficial along with what is inessential or harmful; to discard something valuable along with other things that are undesirable.Also (esp. in early use) to empty the baby out with the bath and variants. [After German das Kind mit dem Bade ausschütten (early 16th cent.).] ΘΚΠ the world > action or operation > harm or detriment > disadvantage > uselessness > misuse > [verb (intransitive)] > be wasteful to make, do waste1390 waste1390 wanton1646 to throw the baby out with the bath1860 1840 C. C. Felton in tr. W. Menzel Germ. Lit. I. 174 Schüttet das Kind mit dem Bade aus; literally ‘empties out the baby with the bath’. 1853 T. Carlyle Occas. Disc. Nigger Question 29 The Germans say, ‘You must empty out the bathing-tub, but not the baby along with it.’] 1860 Dial Feb. 129 The defect of the above article seems to us to be that, in the language of a homely German proverb, it throws out the baby with the bath. 1868 Radical Dec. 472 You have emptied the baby out with the bath. 1896 J. Beveridge tr. L. N. Dahle Life after Death Introd. 16 This, however, would really be to ‘throw the baby away with the bath-water’, abolish the use because of the abuse. 1909 G. B. Shaw in Nation 28 Aug. 788/1 Like all reactionists, he usually empties the baby out with the bath. 1939 S. Spender tr. E. Toller Pastor Hall ii. 84 You pour the baby out with the bath. 1957 E. Gowers H. W. Fowler 14 We can rid ourselves of those grammarians' fetishes which make it more difficult to be intelligible without throwing the baby away with the bath-water. 1967 Ebony Mar. 18/2 Most sportsmen agree that gun control is needed. But let us not ‘throw the baby out with the water’. 1979 Economist 2 June 17 As Whitehall starts to throw out its spenders, it matters that little-money babies do not vanish with the big-money bathwater. 2007 Washington Post 31 July (Home ed.) a6/1 Let's not throw out the baby with the bathwater... We need all the resources that we can to fight this disease. < as lemmas |
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