Apedia

Holding Left Bag Leave One’s Fault Tim Caught

Id in_the_loop_250
Idiom GET CAUGHT/BE LEFT HOLDING THE BAG [LEAVE (SOMEONE) HOLDING THE BAG]
Definition to make someone the scapegoat; to be blamed for something that was not one’s fault or was only partly one’s fault
Examples
  1. The other team members left, Bill was left holding the bag, trying to explain a bad project.
  2. Christine helped Tim invent a scheme to cheat people out of their money and it went wrong. She left town and Tim got caught holding the bag.
Cross-Refs

Compare to: leave (someone) in the lurch

Extra Info

Leave someone in the lurch is usually applied more generally to any number of situations involving responsibility whereas leave someone holding the bag is usually applied to a situation involving theft in which one person is literally left holding (or caught with) the stolen goods.

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