Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to take responsibility.

1787		R. Tyler Contrast II:2: General Shays has sneaked off and given us the bag to hold.
1912		G.R. Chester Five Thousand an Hour Ch. i: He’s not broke, Johnny. He’s merely been letting you hold the bag.
1927		C. Woofter ‘Dialect Words and Phrases from West-Central West Virginia’ in AS II:8 357: The boys left George to hold the bag that time.
1929		C. Coe Hooch! 248: He is planning to cash in on them and run away. That would leave you holding the bag.
1938		H. Asbury Sucker’s Progress 254: In all these commercial undertaking Colonel Bryant had partners who were invariably left holding the bag.
1949		J. Archibald ‘State Penmanship’ Popular Detective Jan. 🌐 I s’pose you think you’re smart leavin’ me holdin’ the bag yesterday [...] I was in night court an’ got fined nearly a hun’red.
1954		M. Millar Wives & Lovers (2016) 211: He didn’t like the sound of the five hundred dollar deal. He and Hazel could be left holding the bag.
1960		C. Himes Big Gold Dream 46: I don’t want to see you take the rap for a no-good man who runs away leaving you holding the bag.
1966		J. Mills Panic in Needle Park (1971) 133: Bobby got off and left me holding the bag, so to speak. And I had the manager on my heels, for at least two blocks.
1972		E. Grogan Ringolevio 431: Leaving Michael X to hold the bag [...] for over a year in prison.
1981		J. Ellroy Brown’s Requiem 79: He’s always [...] taking off to hang out at the drug recovery crashpad, leaving me holding the fucking bag.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 84: ‘Look who’ll be left holding the bag, if and when I put the screws to Jack Kennedy’.

2. to be in a disadvantageous position.

1915		H.E. Rollins ‘A West Texas Word List’ in DN IV:iii 226: holding the bag, adv. phr. Left in the lurch.
1924		C.E. Mulford Hopalong Cassidy Returns 49: Arnold is too old for him to lick, which leaves me holdin’ th’ well-known sack.
1935		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Judgement Day in Studs Lonigan (1936) 609: I had money in some Imbray securities, too, and that’s why I’m holding the bag.
1941		J.M. Cain Mildred Pierce (1985) 498: And here I am, holding the bag. One might almost say I was a bit of a sap.
1949		N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 234: He left me holdin’ the bag for sure.
1953		R. Chandler Long Good-Bye 152: Loring tensed like an animal all set to spring. Wade sensed it and neatly turned his back and moved away. Which left Dr Loring holding the bag.
1961		B. Crump Hang On a Minute, Mate (1963) 125: Left them holding the bag if you ask me.
1971		R.D. Pharr S.R.O. (1998) 196: They’re planning to move out in the middle of the night leaving the said refugees holding the bag.
1991		B. McCarthy Vice Cop 183: ‘[T]his deputy inspector apparently gets tipped off and has himself suddenly transferred to another borough, out of harm’s way. The special prosecutor is left holding the bag’.

3. (UK Und.) of a villain, to be left with full responsibility for a crime in which one’s associates have not been legally involved.

1926		Wood & Goddard Dict. Amer. Sl.
1931–4		D. Clemmer Prison Community (1940) 333/1: hold the bag, vph. To take punishment.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 8: Sammy took one look at the cops and flew, leaving me to hold the bag.
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 90: You cooked up this snatch [...] knowing that you was leaving me and Rocco holding the bag.
1994		P. Baker Blood Posse 301: They all got away and I was left holding the bag.
2017		S.M. Jones August Snow [ebook] ‘You got a partner who leaves you holding the bag’.

4. (drugs) to be in possession of a quantity of drugs, to deal drugs [note bag n.¹ (7a)].

1966		J. Mills Panic in Needle Park (1971) 133: Bobby got off and left me holding the bag, so to speak. And I had the manager on my heels, for at least two blocks.
1968		‘Sl. of Watts’ in Current Sl. III:2.