carry the can take responsibility for a mistake or misdeed. British informal

☞ The origin of this expression and the nature of the can involved are both uncertain, though the idiom appears to have started life as early 20th-century naval or military slang. It has been speculated that it may originally have alluded to one man carrying a container of beer for all his companions, or having to return the empty container at the end of the drinking session.

1999Shyama PereraHaven't Stopped Dancing Yet When something goes wrong in our family, why's it always me who carries the can?