leave someone holding the baby

Verb

leave someone holding the baby (third-person singular simple present leaves someone holding the baby, present participle leaving someone holding the baby, simple past and past participle left someone holding the baby)

1. (idiomatic) To abandon someone and put them in a position where they must take the responsibility or blame.
   • He said he was very uneasy as the schooner owner owed him over $500 and he couldn't get a cent and feared that the owners had gone bankrupt and left him holding the baby.2003, Vincent Roth, A Life in Guyana: The Later Years, 1923-1935, Peepal Tree, published 2003, →ISBN, page 160
   • This statement might sound lame, but operations and network management will try to squeeze everything into one domestic home firewall hanging off a small DSL line. Then they will leave you holding the baby.2006, Mark Osborne, How to Cheat at Managing Information Security, Syngress Publishing, Inc., published 2006, →ISBN, page 125

   Synonyms:

   leave somebody in the lurch, leave someone holding the bag