"do more harm than good" meaning in English

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "does more harm than good",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "doing more harm than good",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "did more harm than good",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "done more harm than good",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "do<does,,did,done> more harm than good"
      },
      "expansion": "do more harm than good (third-person singular simple present does more harm than good, present participle doing more harm than good, simple past did more harm than good, past participle done more harm than good)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2002, José M. Sánchez, Pius XII and the Holocaust: Understanding the Controversy, page 117",
          "text": "Finally, it appears that Pius was asked by some persecuted Jews to avoid an explicit condemnation because it would do more harm than good",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008, David Schoenbrod, Power Without Responsibility: How Congress Abuses the People through Delegation",
          "text": "In other words, they will tend to vote for a bill if they think that the public will perceive it as doing more good than harm, even though it might actually do more harm than good. The public can misperceive the real effects of a bill",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012, Leo Katz, Bad Acts and Guilty Minds: Conundrums of the Criminal Law",
          "text": "What it generalizes to is the proposition that where following a law does more harm than good, it should be broken.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To make a situation worse, usually while trying to make it better."
      ],
      "id": "en-do_more_harm_than_good-en-verb-f-kcfWyd",
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "note": "olla enemmän haittaa kuin hyötyä (subject in the elative case, verb in third person singular)",
          "sense": "to make a situation worse, usually while trying to make it better"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "to make a situation worse, usually while trying to make it better",
          "word": "aiheuttaa enemmän vahinkoa kuin hyvää"
        },
        {
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "to make a situation worse, usually while trying to make it better",
          "word": "többet árt, mint használ"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "to make a situation worse, usually while trying to make it better",
          "tags": [
            "imperfective"
          ],
          "word": "wyrządzać więcej szkody niż pożytku"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "to make a situation worse, usually while trying to make it better",
          "tags": [
            "perfective"
          ],
          "word": "wyrządzić więcej szkody niż pożytku"
        },
        {
          "code": "sv",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "sense": "to make a situation worse, usually while trying to make it better",
          "word": "göra mer skada än nytta"
        },
        {
          "code": "sv",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "sense": "to make a situation worse, usually while trying to make it better",
          "word": "stjälpa mer än hjälpa"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "do more harm than good"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "does more harm than good",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "doing more harm than good",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "did more harm than good",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "done more harm than good",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "do<does,,did,done> more harm than good"
      },
      "expansion": "do more harm than good (third-person singular simple present does more harm than good, present participle doing more harm than good, simple past did more harm than good, past participle done more harm than good)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2002, José M. Sánchez, Pius XII and the Holocaust: Understanding the Controversy, page 117",
          "text": "Finally, it appears that Pius was asked by some persecuted Jews to avoid an explicit condemnation because it would do more harm than good",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008, David Schoenbrod, Power Without Responsibility: How Congress Abuses the People through Delegation",
          "text": "In other words, they will tend to vote for a bill if they think that the public will perceive it as doing more good than harm, even though it might actually do more harm than good. The public can misperceive the real effects of a bill",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012, Leo Katz, Bad Acts and Guilty Minds: Conundrums of the Criminal Law",
          "text": "What it generalizes to is the proposition that where following a law does more harm than good, it should be broken.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To make a situation worse, usually while trying to make it better."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "note": "olla enemmän haittaa kuin hyötyä (subject in the elative case, verb in third person singular)",
      "sense": "to make a situation worse, usually while trying to make it better"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "to make a situation worse, usually while trying to make it better",
      "word": "aiheuttaa enemmän vahinkoa kuin hyvää"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "to make a situation worse, usually while trying to make it better",
      "word": "többet árt, mint használ"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "to make a situation worse, usually while trying to make it better",
      "tags": [
        "imperfective"
      ],
      "word": "wyrządzać więcej szkody niż pożytku"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "to make a situation worse, usually while trying to make it better",
      "tags": [
        "perfective"
      ],
      "word": "wyrządzić więcej szkody niż pożytku"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "to make a situation worse, usually while trying to make it better",
      "word": "göra mer skada än nytta"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "to make a situation worse, usually while trying to make it better",
      "word": "stjälpa mer än hjälpa"
    }
  ],
  "word": "do more harm than good"
}