Word.ws English Dictionary

throwing the baby out with the bathwater

throwing the baby out with the bathwater is the present participle and gerund 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.

Questions about throwing the baby out with the bathwater

What is throwing the baby out with the bathwater the present participle and gerund of?
Throwing the baby out with the bathwater is the present participle and gerund of throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Words near throwing the baby out with the bathwater in the dictionary

  1. throwing stones
  2. throwing stones in a glass house
  3. throwing table
  4. throwing tables
  5. throwing tantrums
  6. throwing the baby out with the bathwater
  7. throwing the book at
  8. throwing the bull
  9. throwing the bull around
  10. throwing the handkerchief
  11. throwing the hatchet

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: throwing the baby out with the bathwater (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.

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