English · Proverb Candidate

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.

Topics: House & home Mice & rats

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.

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