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

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.

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"Why would USA help bail out Argentina while they take American soybean producers' biggest market???"

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But investors shouldn’t see a pullback as a reason to bail out of stocks entirely, he added.

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The two firms, which have been under government conservatorship since being bailed out in 2008, together implicitly back nearly half of mortgages.

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Related Words

• relieve 
• rescue