leave someone high and dry
English
Pronunciation
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Verb
leave (someone) high and dry
- (idiomatic) To abandon somebody; to stop providing assistance at a crucial moment.
- He just walked out and left her high and dry with two kids and a mortgage.
- 2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, pages 76, 77:
- When the Met first reached Chesham, in 1889, the townsfolk thought the growth of their town would be inexorable as a result. [...] The cry went up 'At last, we are on the main line!' And so they were - for three years, until the Met decided to carry on to Amersham, leaving Chesham high and dry on a branch.