empty pockets
Sign of poverty
Empty pockets refers to a state of having no money or being broke.
The image is literal—pockets with nothing in them—but the phrase functions as a figure for financial hardship: He came to the city with empty pockets and big dreams.
To turn out one's empty pockets is to demonstrate you have nothing left to give.
- brokeLacking any funds
- pennilessCompletely without money
- flatLacking vertical variation
- skintHaving no money
- strappedLacking available funds
dead broke · hard up · tapped out · cash · coins · lint · couch cushions · wallet · poor · down and out · hungry · turned out · desperate · payday · spare change · debt · tight budget · scraping by
- povertypoverty line, poor, poverty rate, impoverished, generational poverty
- clothing idiomsfit like a glove, dressed to the nines, dressed to kill, wear the pants, caught with pants down
- wealth symbolsdollar sign, gold coins, gold bars, money bag, money bags
financial state
empty pocketsdeep pockets
Considerable financial reserves
money to burn · loaded · well-heeled · rolling in it · rolling in dough
empty, pockets, emptied, emptying, empties, emptiness, emptier, emptiest, pocket