Too many cooks spoil the broth

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

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Idioms and Phrases

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).

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

“There is a Russian saying that … too many cooks spoil the broth,” said Russia’s deputy U.N. ambassador, Dmitry Polyansky.

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

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“He is outnumbered, but sometimes too many cooks spoil the broth,” said veteran defense attorney Earl Gray, who represents former officer Thomas K. Lane and is in regular touch with Nelson by text and at occasional weekend meetings.

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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.

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Too many cooks spoil the broth, but in a kitchen with six ovens—can you have too many cooks?

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toom too many irons in the fire

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