burn a hole in someone's pocket

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English

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Pronunciation

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  • Audio (General Australian); burn a hole in one's pocket:(file)

Verb

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burn a hole in someone's pocket (third-person singular simple present burns a hole in someone's pocket, present participle burning a hole in someone's pocket, simple past and past participle burned a hole in someone's pocket or burnt a hole in someone's pocket)

  1. (idiomatic, of something valuable) To cause someone to spend money or be tempted to spend money.
    • 1972, Noel Bertram Gerson, The Prodigal Genius: The Life and Times of Honoré de Balzac, page 327:
      The fortune burned a hole in his pocket, and he could not resist spending several thousand francs on jewelry for Eveline; []
    • 2004, Alan Cooper, The Inmates Are Running the Asylum, page 60:
      In frustration, I go to the local Circuit City, my Visa card burning a hole in my pocket. "Here's a grand! Two grand," I shout, "for the salesperson who can bring me a VCR that I can use to record TV shows.
    • 2004, Dale Bumpers, The Best Lawyer in a One-Lawyer Town: A Memoir, page 183:
      When I later thought about the fifteen hundred dollars in hundred-dollar bills burning a hole in my pocket, and about how I was prepared to go immediately to the Democratic Party offices and plunk it down to campaign with a manager []

See also

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