noun
cleaning up someone else's mess; making up for someone else's mistake
Idiomatic use: taking responsibility for another person's failure or trouble, often reluctantly. Commonly used with する (e.g., 尻拭いをする).
上司の失敗の尻拭いをさせられた。
I was made to clean up my boss's mess.
いつも彼の尻拭いをするのはもう嫌だ
I'm tired of always having to fix his mistakes.
noun
ass-wiping; arse-wiping
Literal meaning: the act of wiping someone's bottom. Rarely used in modern Japanese outside of explaining the idiom's origin or in very crude contexts.
「尻拭い」は文字通りには尻を拭くことを指すが、今ではほとんど使われない。
Literally, 尻拭い means wiping someone's bottom, but it is hardly used that way nowadays.