Word.ws English Dictionary

throw out the baby with the bath water

throw out the baby with the bath water is the alternative form of throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Meaning of throw the baby out with the bathwater

Verb

throw the baby out with the bathwater (third-person singular simple present throws the baby out with the bathwater, present participle throwing the baby out with the bathwater, simple past threw the baby out with the bathwater, past participle thrown the baby out with the bathwater)

  1. (idiomatic) 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").
    • 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.

Forms of throw out the baby with the bath water

third-person singular presentthrows out the baby with the bath water
present participlethrowing out the baby with the bath water
pastthrew out the baby with the bath water
past participlethrown out the baby with the bath water

Questions about throw out the baby with the bath water

What is throw out the baby with the bath water the alternative form of?
Throw out the baby with the bath water is the alternative form of throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Words near throw out the baby with the bath water in the dictionary

  1. throw oneself behind
  2. throw oneself into
  3. throw oneself on someone's mercy
  4. throw open
  5. throw out
  6. throw out the baby with the bath water
  7. throw out the baby with the bathwater
  8. throw over
  9. throw overboard
  10. throw pearls before swine
  11. throw pillow

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: throw out the baby with the bath water (page history and authors); throw the baby out with the bathwater (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “throw out the baby with the bath water.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/throw_out_the_baby_with_the_bath_water. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.