bail out

verb

1. (intr) to make an emergency parachute jump from an aircraft

2. informal,  (tr) to help (a person, organization, etc) out of a predicament

   the government bailed the company out

3. informal,  (intr) to escape from a predicament

Idioms and Phrases

Empty water out of a boat, usually by dipping with a bucket or other container. For example, We had to keep bailing out water from this leaky canoe . [Early 1600s]

Rescue someone in an emergency, especially a financial crisis of some kind, as in They were counting on an inheritance to bail them out . [ Colloquial ; 1900s]

Jump out of an airplane, using a parachute. For example, When the second engine sputtered, the pilot decided to bail out . [c. 1930]

Give up on something, abandon a responsibility, as in The company was not doing well, so John decided to bail out while he could still find another job . [Second half of 1900s]

See make bail .

Example Sentences

Between that lost cause and all the attention the left has managed to focus on how broken ObamaCare is in general, you might think that a good day to bail out.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Contrary to some market chatter that had been making the rounds, individual investors — sometimes referred to as retail traders — didn’t bail out of stocks last week, according to Citadel Securities’ Scott Rubner.

Read more on MarketWatch

Farmers have been furious that the U.S. has opted to bail out its political ally in Argentina, President Javier Milei, even though Argentine farmers continue to sell their soybeans to China.

Read more on Barron's

It already owns 63% of Hang Seng, having bailed out the smaller lender when it suffered a run in the 1960s.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Iranian escalation could no longer bail out Hamas.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• relieve 
• rescue