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Too many cooks spoil the broth
Too many cooks spoil the brothWhen too many people work together on a project, the result is inferior.
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too many cooks spoil the broth
too many cooks spoil the brothToo 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
CulturalExample Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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
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
We sometimes hear arguments against collaborating, but in our experience the old adage that too many cooks spoil the broth doesn't hold.
From The Guardian • Apr. 6, 2011
It is a trite saying that "too many cooks spoil the broth," but in this instance the saying was verified.
From Western Worthies A Gallery of Biographical and Critical Sketches of West of Scotland Celebrities by Jeans, J. Stephen (James Stephen)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.