burn a hole in someone's pocket

English

Pronunciation

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

  (file)

Verb

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

• money to burn
• shut up and take my money