Word.ws English Dictionary

be left holding the baby

be left holding the baby verb: to be left with the responsibility of resolving a problem.

Verb

be left holding the baby (third-person singular simple present is left holding the baby, present participle being left holding the baby, simple past was left holding the baby, past participle been left holding the baby)

  1. (idiomatic) To be left with the responsibility of resolving a problem.

Forms of be left holding the baby

third-person singular presentis left holding the baby
present participlebeing left holding the baby
pastwas left holding the baby
past participlebeen left holding the baby

Questions about be left holding the baby

What does be left holding the baby mean?
Be left holding the baby means to be left with the responsibility of resolving a problem.
What part of speech is be left holding the baby?
Be left holding the baby is a verb.
What is the past tense of be left holding the baby?
The past tense of be left holding the baby is was left holding the baby.

Words near be left holding the baby in the dictionary

  1. be it what it would
  2. be judge and jury
  3. be kind, rewind
  4. be late
  5. be left at the post
  6. be left holding the baby
  7. be left kicking
  8. be like
  9. be lost to the four winds
  10. be mother
  11. be mum

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: be left holding the baby (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-be left holding the baby.ogg.

Cite this entry: “be left holding the baby.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/be_left_holding_the_baby. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.