too many cooks spoil the broth
Meaning: When too many people work on something, the result is worse.
Language: English
Literally: (Already vivid in English)
Example: “Six people edited the flyer and now it's a mess: too many cooks spoil the broth.”
Category: Food & Drink
Origin: A kitchen with many cooks each adding their own touch ruins the soup. The proverb is recorded in English from the late 16th century.
Equivalents in other languages
- Polish: Gdzie kucharek sześć, tam nie ma co jeść — literally: Where there are six cooks, there's nothing to eat
More idioms — Food & Drink
- toss one's cookies — To vomit.
- manna from heaven — Something good that arrives unexpectedly just when it is needed.
- cook the books — To falsify figures, especially accounts.
- like chalk and cheese — Completely different, though perhaps similar at first glance.
- teach your grandmother to suck eggs — To give advice to someone who knows far more than you.
- make a hash of something — To do something very badly.
More English idioms
- a vicious circle — A situation where one problem causes another, which makes the first worse.
- birds of a feather flock together — People with similar interests or character tend to spend time together.
- wish the ground would swallow one up — To feel so embarrassed that one wants to disappear.
- have one's head screwed on — To be sensible and practical.
- a ballpark figure — A rough estimate.
- a bird-brain — A silly or scatterbrained person.
From our tongue twisters
- Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. — A relentless 'p' plosive drill; a peck is an old dry measure of about nine litres.
- Unique New York. — Three words that jam the 'y/n/k' sequence together — repeat it and it collapses into 'you…
- Pad kid poured curd pulled cod. — Alternating repetition — the consonants swap at the start of every other word, which is w…