The phrase to be left holding the bag is as widely used as the expression to let the cat out of the bag.

This expression makes the person left holding the bag responsible for an action, often a crime or misdeed. That person is the one who is punished. The others involve in the act escape.

Where the expression came from is not clear. Some say that General George Washington used it during the American Revolutionary War.

One of Washington's officers, Royall Taylor, used the expression in a play about Daniel Shay's rebellion. The play was in seventeen eighty-seven, after Taylor helped to put down Shay's rebellion.

Shays led a thousand war veterans in an attack on a federal building in Springfield, Massachusetts. Guns were in the building. Some of the protesters were farmers who had no money to buy seed. Some had been put in prison for not paying their debts. They were men who fought one war against the king of England, and were now prepared to fight against their own government. Most of the rebels were captured. Shays and some of the officers escaped.

In his play, Taylor describes Shays as disappearing, giving others "the bag to hold."

A bag is useful in many ways. Just be careful not to let the cat out of the bag, or someone may leave you holding the bag.

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You have been listening to the VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES. This is Bob Doughty.