take a bath

1. Experience serious financial loss, as in The company took a bath investing in that new product. This idiom, which originated in gambling, transfers washing oneself in a bathtub to being “cleaned out” financially. [Slang; first half of 1900s]

Related Words

• douse 
• drench 
• float 
• hose 
• moisten 
• rinse 
• scrub 
• shower 
• soak 
• wash up 
• wet 
• wipe