To piss away
 

Hi folks,

Could anyone do me a favour and tell me what a Spanish approximation of the English idiom "to piss away" might be? We use it meaning "to waste", as in "he pissed away all his money" or "he pissed away an opportunity". Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers.

There are so many words in Spanish for squander, like despilfarrar and malgastar. I can't think of an idiomatic term, but maybe some others would.

First of all there are two things which very much require clarification particularly for the benefit of non-native English speakers; first of all they are really rather vulgar, and mildly offensive and should never be employed except among close friends; and secondly all the above mentioned expressions only ever refer to wasting or squandering wealth or other assets because of excessive drinking.

No comparable Spanish translation comes immediately to my mind and even I could think of one I would not be inclined to encourage language learners to use such terms until they were competent enough to work them out for themselves.

If this posting creates the impression of being a criticism then I'm pleased that I have succeeded.

Thanks, poli. Something idiomatic would suit my purposes better, but cheers.

Sancho Pather - I'm not asking so I can employ the term in my elementary conversational Spanish, but as research for a piece I'm working on about idioms. As you rightly point out, non-native English speakers unfamiliar with the phrase should exercise caution, as it might cause mild offense in certain situations. Side note: I would argue that while the phrase might originally have pertained to ruination as a result of excessive drinking (as its literal meaning suggests) it now can be used to denote reaching the same end by whatever means.