leave to someone's tender mercies
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Submit to another's power or discretion, especially to an unsympathetic individual. Today this expression is always used ironically, as in We left him to the tender mercies of that stiff-necked, arrogant nurse. It alludes to a biblical passage (Proverbs 12:10): “A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast; but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.”
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Words nearby leave to someone's tender mercies
leave someone in the lurch, leave someone to his or her resources, leave-taking, leave the door open, leave to someone's own devices, leave to someone's tender mercies, Leave well enough alone, leave without a leg to stand on, leave word, leaving, leavings
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.