Word.ws English Dictionary

burn a hole in someone's pocket

burn a hole in someone's pocket verb: to cause someone to spend money or be tempted to spend money.

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) To cause someone to spend money or be tempted to spend money.
    • The fortune burned a hole in his pocket, and he could not resist spending several thousand francs on jewelry for Eveline; […]1972, Noel Bertram Gerson, The Prodigal Genius: The Life and Times of Honoré de Balzac, page 327
    • 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, Alan Cooper, The Inmates Are Running the Asylum, page 60

Forms of burn a hole in someone's pocket

third-person singular presentburns a hole in someone's pocket
present participleburning a hole in someone's pocket
past participleburned a hole in someone's pocket
pastburned a hole in someone's pocket
past participleburnt a hole in someone's pocket
pastburnt a hole in someone's pocket

Questions about burn a hole in someone's pocket

What does burn a hole in someone's pocket mean?
Burn a hole in someone's pocket means to cause someone to spend money or be tempted to spend money.
What part of speech is burn a hole in someone's pocket?
Burn a hole in someone's pocket is a verb.
What is the past tense of burn a hole in someone's pocket?
The past tense of burn a hole in someone's pocket is burned a hole in someone's pocket.

Words near burn a hole in someone's pocket in the dictionary

  1. Burmilla
  2. Burmillas
  3. Burmish
  4. Burmo-
  5. burn
  6. burn a hole in someone's pocket
  7. burn away
  8. burn bag
  9. burn bags
  10. burn barrel
  11. burn barrels

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: burn a hole in someone's pocket (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-burn a hole in one's pocket.ogg.

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