to burn a hole in someone's pocket
5
7.7
- idiom
- Informal
:
quemar el bolsillo
- All this dough... it's burning a hole in my pocket!
- Money burns a hole in my pocket
- Cash burning a hole in your pocket
Examples
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With all this birthday cash burning a hole in my pocket, I couldn't wait to go shopping.
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And... this thing has been burning a hole in my pocket for weeks.
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This thing's burning a hole in my pocket.
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"I know that the foundation money is burning a hole in your pocket, but there will be plenty of opportunities to give it away."
Fiction book (1997) -
With Christmas money burning a hole in my pocket, I came bouncing down the stairs.
Fiction book (2001) -
If you're planning to stay for a while and you've got money burning a hole in your pocket, why not?
Blog text (16) -
After winning the lottery, he felt money burning a hole in his pocket and started planning a big trip.
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She had a bonus that was burning a hole in her pocket, so she decided to buy new clothes.
Antonyms
How Urgent
Surface Forms
Morphology
burn + a + hole + in + someone's + pocket
The phrase relies on a metaphorical image—money 'burning a hole' in a pocket—so the literal words (burn, hole, pocket) give a clue about money being affected but the jump to the idiomatic sense of an irresistible urge to spend is a metaphorical extension. Because the meaning is partially inferable from the constituents but requires recognizing the metaphorical mapping rather than simple compositionality, it is not fully transparent to a B1 learner.
Etymology
The idiom burn a hole in someone's pocket comes from the image of coins so hot they burn a hole in a pocket, making the owner hurry to spend them. That's why it means 'to make someone want to spend money quickly'.