nip it in the bud


quite possibly the 5 wisest words¹ ever spoken on tv.

¹ spoken by barney fife on the andy griffith show, circa 1960’s.
barney fife: “nip it in the bud! you got to nip it in the bud! … nip it! you go read any book you want on the subject of child discipline, and you’ll find that every one of ’em is in favor of bud-nippin’… only one way to take care of it.”

andy taylor: “nip it.”

fife: “in the bud.”
it means to stop someting before it grows/gets worse. sort of like nipping a flower when it’s still a bud so it can’t grow.
-holy cow! my zit is huuge!
-yeah, you’d better nip it in the bud before it gets worse.
a bud is a flower before it blooms. so if you nip it with scissors, you stop it before it blooms. to prevent a disaster.
you got to nip it in the bud

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