hang out to dry
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
to abandon or leave someone in a difficult situation
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
Bỏ rơi hoặc để lại ai đó trong tình huống khó khăn
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: leaving laundry outside to dry
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
The company hung their employee out to dry after the scandal
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “hang out to dry” mean?
to abandon or leave someone in a difficult situation Literally: leaving laundry outside to dry
Is “hang out to dry” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.