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Reader question: Please explain “left out to dry” in this sentence: “On Sunday night, the goal keeper was left out to dry, allowing three goals in the first half...” My comments: The goal keeper didn’t do a good job in Sunday night’s game, allowing three goals in the first half. You shouldn’t fault him alone, though. His defenders didn’t do a good job either, often leaving their goal keeper exposed to direct attack from opponents. “Left out to dry” is a variation from “hung out to dry”, an American idiom. Picture a piece of clothing on the clothesline in the courtyard and you’ll know what it means to be hung out to dry. By hanging pieces of clothing out to dry, you leave them out in the open air, so that the scorching sun and light breeze will make sure the dripping wet clothes dry up soon. If a person is left out to dry, it means the same thing, or something similar, I mean. In the same way the clothes on the clothesline are exposed to the weather, the person is exposed to the elements, so to speak. In other words, the person who’s hung out to dry is unprotected and alone. Like the goal keeper in the example above, a person goes out with a group of friends. Then something goes wrong and his friends disappear, leaving himself out there fending for himself. He’s left alone, isolated and helpless. He will get the blame for everything. He will be the scapegoat. | 
