I recently heard the phrase "taking a bath with the crowd" and that apparently it's a common idiom in many European languages. I found several results for the phrase on Google, but none that explain what it means. Does anyone know what the phrase means, and if there's a common (American) English phrase that means the same thing?
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Stéphane's suggestion, “to mingle with the crowd”, may well reflect the intended meaning of the speaker of the phrase. But note that in English, the phrase “take a bath” often is associated with a stock-market loss (1, 2); since the European idiom is not well-known in the U.S., I'd expect American English speakers to either associate your phrase with taking a loss in the market (along with a crowd of other investors) or to interpret the phrase literally. |
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It means “to mingle with the crowd” or maybe a bit more faithfully to “immerse oneself in the crowd” (as suggested by StoneyB in the comments). The original idiom is closer to “taking a bath of crowd” (in French at least). Just as if the world were a container filled with human beings. |
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