bath

take a bath (on something)

Sl. to accumulate large losses on a business transaction or an investment. (Alludes to getting soaked, a slang expression meaning "being heavily charged for something.") Sally took a bath on that stock that she bought. Its price went down to nothing. I'm afraid that I will take a bath on any investment I make.

See also: take

take a shower and take a bath

to bathe. I take a shower every morning. John takes a hot bath to relax.

See also: shower, take

throw the baby out with the bath(water)

Fig. to dispose of the good while eagerly trying to get rid of the bad. (Fig. on the image of carelessly emptying a tub of both the water inside as well as the baby that was being washed.) In her haste to talk down a project that had only a few disagreeable points, she has thrown the baby out with the bathwater. Hasty action on this major spending bill will result in throwing out the baby with the bath.

See also: baby, out, throw

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an early bath  (British & Australian informal)

if you take an early bath, you are forced to stop doing an activity sooner than you intended to

Usage notes: This phrase is often used about sports such as football.

The spokesman took an early bath after a series of embarrassing and incorrect statements. And that's his second yellow card so it looks like an early bath for Taylor.

See also: early

take a bath  (mainly american)

to suffer a bad financial loss Several banks took a bath when the industry collapsed.

See also: take

throw the baby out with the bath water

to get rid of the good parts as well as the bad parts of something when you are trying to improve it I don't think we should throw the baby out with the bath water. There are some good features of the present system that I think we should retain.

See also: baby, out, throw, water

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take a (financial) bath

to lose money on an investment Investors took a bath when they had to resell the bonds at lower prices than they had paid.

See also: take

throw out the baby with the bath water

to lose the good parts when you get rid of the bad parts of something You can't close the airport because one airline has problems - that's just throwing out the baby with the bath water.

See also: baby, out, throw, water