leave someone holding the bag
leave someone holding the bag verb: to abandon somebody, leaving him or her holding the responsibility or blame.
Verb
leave someone holding the bag (third-person singular simple present leaves someone holding the bag, present participle leaving someone holding the bag, simple past and past participle left someone holding the bag)
- To abandon somebody, leaving him or her holding the responsibility or blame.
- After the accident, he just vanished and left me holding the bag.
- To remove the value from an article or arrangement and leave somebody holding the empty (or valueless) container.
Synonyms of leave someone holding the bag
Forms of leave someone holding the bag
| third-person singular present | leaves someone holding the bag |
|---|---|
| present participle | leaving someone holding the bag |
| past participle | left someone holding the bag |
| past | left someone holding the bag |
Origin of leave someone holding the bag
Originated in 18th-century Britain, referring to a person left holding stolen goods while the rest of a criminal gang escapes.
Questions about leave someone holding the bag
- What does leave someone holding the bag mean?
- Leave someone holding the bag means to abandon somebody, leaving him or her holding the responsibility or blame.
- What part of speech is leave someone holding the bag?
- Leave someone holding the bag is a verb.
- What is the past tense of leave someone holding the bag?
- The past tense of leave someone holding the bag is left someone holding the bag.
Words near leave someone holding the bag in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: leave someone holding the bag (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.
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Cite this entry: “leave someone holding the bag.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/leave_someone_holding_the_bag. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.