leave someone high and dry

English

leave someone high and dry (third-person singular simple present leaves someone high and dry, present participle leaving someone high and dry, simple past and past participle left someone high and dry)

(idiomatic) To abandon somebody; to stop providing assistance at a crucial moment.
He just walked out and left her high and dry with two kids and a mortgage.
- 2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, pages 76, 77:
  When the Met first reached Chesham, in 1889, the townsfolk thought the growth of their town would be inexorable as a result. [...] The cry went up 'At last, we are on the main line!' And so they were - for three years, until the Met decided to carry on to Amersham, leaving Chesham high and dry on a branch.