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take a bath

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take a bath (on something)

Sl. to accumulate large losses on a business transaction or an investment. (Alludes to getting soaked, a slang expression meaning "being heavily charged for something.") Sally took a bath on that stock that she bought. Its price went down to nothing. I'm afraid that I will take a bath on any investment I make.

See also: bath, take

take a (financial) bath

to lose money on an investment Investors took a bath when they had to resell the bonds at lower prices than they had paid.

See also: bath, take

take a bath

  (mainly american)

to suffer a bad financial loss Several banks took a bath when the industry collapsed.

See also: bath, take

take a bath

Experience serious financial loss, as in The company took a bath investing in that new product. This idiom, which originated in gambling, transfers washing oneself in a bathtub to being "cleaned out" financially. [Slang; first half of 1900s]

See also: bath, take

take a bath

verb

See take a bath on something

See also: bath, take

take a bath

Informal

To experience serious financial loss: "Small investors who latched on to hot new issues took a bath in Wall Street" (Paul A. Samuelson).

See also: bath, take