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  • Too many cooks spoil the broth
    Too many cooks spoil the broth
    When too many people work together on a project, the result is inferior.
  • too many cooks spoil the broth
    too many cooks spoil the broth
    Too many persons involved in managing an activity can ruin it, as in Without a conductor, every player had an idea for how the music should go—too many cooks spoil the broth. This expression alludes to each of many cooks adding something to a soup, which finally tastes awful. It was already considered a proverb in 1575 (by George Gascoigne in The Life of P. Care).

Too many cooks spoil the broth

Cultural  
  1. When too many people work together on a project, the result is inferior.


too many cooks spoil the broth Idioms  
  1. Too many persons involved in managing an activity can ruin it, as in Without a conductor, every player had an idea for how the music should go—too many cooks spoil the broth. This expression alludes to each of many cooks adding something to a soup, which finally tastes awful. It was already considered a proverb in 1575 (by George Gascoigne in The Life of P. Care).


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

Too many cooks spoil the broth, you know.

From Air Service Boys Over The Enemy's Lines The German Spy's Secret by Charles Amory Beach

"Too many cooks spoil the broth," says the proverb, and the same rule applies doubly to such meals as the one the girls were so busily preparing.

From The Camp Fire Girls in the Mountains or Bessie King's Strange Adventure by Jane L. Stewart

Too many cooks spoil the broth, as we know, and we must not spoil our feast.

From Five Mice in a Mouse-trap by the Man in the Moon. by Addie Ledyard

Too many cooks spoil the broth, and too many celebrities numb our faculty of wonder.

From Without Prejudice by Israel Zangwill

Here Morinski shakes his black curly head, says, "Too many cooks spoil the broth," and asks, "Why did you not stay longer with one teacher?"

From Erlach Court by Ossip Schubin

But with a story-heavy game like this, too many cooks spoil the broth, as they say, so slow and steady it was.

From The Verge Jul. 27, 2021

But it can actually be quite burdensome when someone tries to help but doesn’t know what they are doing: too many cooks spoil the broth – especially if they can’t cook.

From The Guardian Jul. 17, 2018

Q: In English, we say too many cooks spoil the broth.

From New York Times Jun. 25, 2016

When do too many cooks spoil the broth?

From Forbes Jan. 16, 2012

Experience has taught us that "too many cooks spoil the broth" even in the may-fly season.

From A Cotswold Village by J. Arthur Gibbs

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