English · Idiom Candidate

burn a hole in someone's pocket

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

to make someone want to spend money urgently

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

làm cho ai đó muốn chi tiền một cách cấp thiết

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: money burning a hole in a pocket

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

The extra cash was burning a hole in his pocket, so he bought a new watch.

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.

Topics: Clothes

Common questions

What does “burn a hole in someone's pocket” mean?

to make someone want to spend money urgently Literally: money burning a hole in a pocket

Is “burn a hole in someone's pocket” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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