burn a hole in someone's pocket

English

Pronunciation

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Verb

burn a hole in someone's pocket

1. (idiomatic, said of something valuable) To cause someone to be tempted to spend money.
   • 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...

   • 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;