Chinese idiom · 成语
挥金如土
Meaning
To scatter gold like dirt; extravagant spending.
Character by character
Origin and story
Literary commemorationIn his Song-dynasty memorial for Zheng Tinghui, Mao Pang remembers a forceful, unconventional friend who drank, composed poetry, and gathered companions. Describing him as scattering money like earth belongs to this portrait of a man unconcerned with the narrow pursuit of profit and reputation.
The image therefore need not originally have been simple condemnation: in this passage, free spending helps express an expansive disregard for money. Later usage commonly became critical, emphasizing extravagance and waste. Gold and earth form the contrast between something precious and something treated as abundant and disposable. The idiom now usually warns that a person's spending has lost all restraint.
Sources and further reading
In everyday life
刚拿到奖金，他就挥金如土，几天内买了好几件奢侈品。
As soon as he received his bonus, he spent recklessly, buying several luxury items within days.
Usually critical; stronger than simply saying someone is generous.