High and Dry

Watch this on YouTube here - Abandon Video - YouTube Video

Meaning:

High and Dry means that you have been stranded, left behind, you are without help.

“Wow, they left me high and dry”

Origin:

This term originally referred to ships and boats that were beached. The 'dry' implies that not only were they out of the water but had been for some time and could be expected to remain so. When this happened to the ships, the crew would abandon them and leave them on the beach, “high and dry.”

The first written record was used in a 'Ship News' column in The [London] Times, in 1796 it read:

"The Russian frigate Archipelago, yesterday got aground below the Nore at high water, which; when the tide had ebbed, left her nearly high and dry."

Example:

We still use high and dry for boats to express they have been beached and abandoned, but we have also used this phrase to express that we feel abandoned. An example sentence is.

“My roommates left me high and dry at the party, so I called an Uber.”

Watch this on YouTube here - Abandon Video - YouTube Video

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