one might as well throw water into the sea as to do a kindness to rogues
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Helping dishonest people is pointless
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
Giúp đỡ những người không trung thực là vô ích
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: throwing water into the sea
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Sources & notes
Listed on Wikipedia “List of proverbial phrases” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “one might as well throw water into the sea as to do a kindness to rogues” mean?
Helping dishonest people is pointless Literally: throwing water into the sea
Is “one might as well throw water into the sea as to do a kindness to rogues” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.