MEANING
To leave someone to deal with a difficult responsibility after other people have withdrawn.
Use it for
describing others abandoning a shared responsibility; showing one person left to manage a problem alone; criticizing colleagues who escape the consequences; distinguishing an unwanted burden from a willingly accepted taskSpecifies being left to handle a shared difficulty after others evade their part. Writing functions: Responsibility / Abandonment. Semantic categories (by meaning): Responsibility / Abandonment. Contexts: General conversation; Creative prose.
Words that belong together
- be left holding the baby
- leave someone holding the bag
On the page
The organizers disappeared after the cancellation, leaving the caretaker holding the baby.
She refused to be left holding the bag for a decision the entire board had approved.
Word forms
- Base
- leave someone holding the baby
Usage notes
Verbal idiom: leave/leaves/left/left/leaving someone holding the baby. Often be left holding the baby. American alternative: leave someone holding the bag. Register: informal. Commonness: moderately common; especially British English (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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