Idiom
High and dry
If you are left high and dry, you are left alone in a difficult situation, without help or support.
How people use it
It nearly always follows leave or be left: the moving company canceled and left us high and dry. It suggests being abandoned at a bad moment, often by someone who should have helped. It can also describe a boat literally out of the water, such as one left high and dry by the tide, which is the original sense. The tone is informal to neutral.
Also said: left high and dry.
Examples
- When the band's bus broke down, the promoter left them high and dry.
- Our ride never showed up, so we were left high and dry at the airport.
- The low tide left the little fishing boats high and dry on the mud.
Where it comes from
It comes from sailing. A ship that had run aground or been beached sat high and dry: completely out of the water and unable to move. The nautical phrase is recorded from the late 1700s, and the figurative sense of being stranded without help followed in the 1800s.
Check yourself
1. If a coworker left you high and dry, what happened?
Answer: They left you without help when you needed it. Left high and dry means abandoned in a difficult spot.
2. Which sentence uses the idiom correctly?
Answer: My study partner quit the night before the project was due and left me high and dry.. The idiom means being stranded without support, not being happy or well helped.
Similar idioms
Word game fan? See every word hiding in DRY.