hold the bag

hold the bag To have responsibility or guilt for something foisted upon oneself; to take the blame for something.
Hold the bag - Idioms by The Free Dictionary
hold the bag
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Related to hold the bag: left holding the bag
hold the bag
To have responsibility or guilt for something foisted upon oneself; to take the blame for something.
My partner had been cooking the books for years, but I was left holding the bag when the business collapsed.
See also: bag, hold
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2022 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
hold the bag Informal
1. To be left with empty hands.
2. To be forced to assume total responsibility when it ought to have been shared.
See also: bag, hold
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
hold(ing) the bag, to/be left
Abandoned by others, left in the lurch to carry the responsibility or blame. The implication in this expression, used since the eighteenth century, is that one is left holding an empty bag while others have made off with the presumably valuable contents. The phrase has often been used in international relations—for example, by Thomas Jefferson (“She will leave Spain the bag to hold,” Writings, 1793), and on the eve of America’s entrance into World War II, by Clare Boothe (Luce) in Europe in the Spring (1940): “When bigger and better bags are made, America will hold them.”
See also: left, to
The Dictionary of Clich;s by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer