baby and bathwater

English

Etymology

From the phrase throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Pronunciation

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Noun

baby and bathwater pl (plural only)

1. (idiomatic, often attributively) Used in reference to an error in which something valuable is discarded in the process of removing or rejecting something unwanted.
   • 2012, Michael Staudenmaier, Truth and Revolution: A History of the Sojourner Truth Organization, 1969–1986, Edinburgh: AK Press, →ISBN, page 23:

     From this perspective, the limits of the radical feminist worldview seemed increasingly frustrating to the feminist radicals. In some cases, this led to a baby and bathwater sort of reaction, where even the important lessons of consciousness raising were dismissed as middle-class diversions.