high and dry

Idioms  

1. Stranded, as in They walked out on the party, leaving me high and dry. This expression originally alluded to a ship that had run aground or was in dry dock. Its figurative use dates from the late 1800s.

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Example Sentences

And he does not want to leave his clients high and dry should he die unexpectedly.

From MarketWatch • Feb. 25, 2026

"Social care has been left high and dry" by last year's NI changes, says John Paddick.

From BBC • Nov. 26, 2025

The land is high and dry, the ground rocky and inhospitable — not like the rainy coastal Northwest, where trees grow thick and fast.

From New York Times • Apr. 4, 2024

When a cyberattack knocked the British Library out of commission in October of last year, a nation’s researchers, scholars, students, and bookworms were left high and dry.

From Slate • Jan. 19, 2024

The picture built up, line by line, until with enormous relief we saw the footpad sitting high and dry above the Martian surface.

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan