Bail out
Meaning
To rescue someone or something from a difficult, often financially ruinous, situation.
Origin
Picture a small vessel on a turbulent sea, taking on water faster than its pumps can handle. With the deck awash and the boat listing, the crew's only hope was to grab buckets, pots, or any available container and frantically "bail"—scoop water out by hand—to keep their ship from sinking. This desperate, laborious act of saving a vessel from certain doom by removing its accumulating water gave rise to the phrase "bail out." From these perilous nautical beginnings, the vivid image of averting disaster through direct intervention readily transferred to land, eventually describing any urgent rescue, especially financial, to save an entity from complete collapse, much like a ship from the icy depths.
Examples
- The government decided to bail out the failing bank to prevent a larger economic collapse.
- When their business faced bankruptcy, a wealthy investor stepped in to bail them out with a large loan.