take a bath
verb1
To bathe.
- She told the children to take a bath and wash off the mud and grime.
- Take a bath with fragrant herbs.2009, Peter Sander, Jennifer Sander, 573 Ways to Save Money: Save the Cost of This Book Many Times Over in Less than a Day!, page 211:
2
Idiomatic To lose a large amount of money in an investment.
- Shareholders took a bath when the company went bankrupt.
- 1983 December, ‘Look before you leap into a commodity pool’, in Kiplinger's Personal Finance, page 74, In the high-risk world of futures contracts, pooling the risks could be just another way to take a bath.
2 more examples
- The lenders took a bath because they had to honor fixed rate loans of 5 to 10% while borrowing money at 15 to 20% to fund them.2009, John Burley, Money Secrets of the Rich: Learn the 7 Secrets to Financial Freedom, page 163:
- The fastest way to take a bath in the stock market is to try to prove that you are right and the market is wrong.2009, William J. O'Neil, How to Make Money in Stocks: A Winning System in Good Times or Bad, page 235:
- Synonyms
- have a bath