Burn not your house to rid it of the mouse. (Strauss, 1994 p. 568)
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Don't take drastic action to solve a small problem
Literally: burning a house to get rid of a mouse
Examples
We shouldn't fire him for a minor mistake, burn not your house to rid it of the mouse
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed on English Wikiquote “English proverbs” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31). Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “Burn not your house to rid it of the mouse. (Strauss, 1994 p. 568)” mean?
Don't take drastic action to solve a small problem Literally: burning a house to get rid of a mouse
Is “Burn not your house to rid it of the mouse. (Strauss, 1994 p. 568)” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.