leave someone holding the baby
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
to give someone a problem or responsibility that you don't want
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
gán cho ai đó một vấn đề hoặc trách nhiệm không mong muốn
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: leave someone with a baby to care for
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
After quitting his job, he left his colleagues holding the baby with the unfinished project
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 “leave someone holding the baby” mean?
to give someone a problem or responsibility that you don't want Literally: leave someone with a baby to care for
Is “leave someone holding the baby” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.