take a bath

Verb

take a bath (third-person singular simple present takes a bath, present participle taking a bath, simple past took a bath, past participle taken a bath)

1. To bathe.
   • She told the children to take a bath and wash off the mud and grime.
   • Take a bath with fragrant herbs.2009, Peter Sander, Jennifer Sander, 573 Ways to Save Money: Save the Cost of This Book Many Times Over in Less than a Day!, page 211

   Synonyms:

   have a bath

2. (idiomatic) To lose a large amount of money in an investment.
   • Shareholders took a bath when the company went bankrupt.
   • In the high-risk world of futures contracts, pooling the risks could be just another way to take a bath.1983 December, ‘Look before you leap into a commodity pool’, in Kiplinger's Personal Finance, page 74