Financial rescues or emergency payments to prevent failure, often when a business or government is in severe trouble; also, acts of jumping out with a parachute from an aircraft.
From 'bail out,' combining 'bail' (to remove water from a boat) and 'out,' originally meaning to escape from a sinking ship, extended metaphorically to financial rescue in the 20th century.
The 2008 financial crisis made 'bailout' a household word, but the metaphor is ancient—bailing water from a sinking boat and bailing out a failing bank use the same desperate rescue logic.
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