Abandon someone, force someone to bear the responsibility or blame. For example, Her friends said they were too busy to help with cleaning up, and left Lucy holding the bag . This expression is often put as be left holding the bag , as in When they quit the clean-up committee, Lucy was left holding the bag . This idiom grew out of the earlier give one the bag (to hold) , which dates from about 1600 and alludes to being left with an empty bag while others have taken the valuable contents. Also see leave in the lurch