Meaning & use
hemorrhaging money
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“hemorrhaging money” is a form of “hemorrhage money”.
Meanings
phrasefixed phrasefigurative
Losing large amounts of money quickly and continuously, much as a badly injured person loses blood.
Grammar: The company or person is the subject: the firm is hemorrhaging money; the object is always money.
Patterns
- someone is hemorrhaging money
- something is hemorrhaging money
The airline is hemorrhaging money because fuel costs keep climbing.
After the product recall, the startup was hemorrhaging money and had only three months of cash left.
Our household was hemorrhaging money until we cancelled the subscriptions nobody used.
phrasefixed phrasefigurativeinformal
Spending far more than is coming in, so that funds drain away with little to show for it.
Grammar: Often describes a project or department: the new store is hemorrhaging money.
Patterns
- something keeps hemorrhaging money
The renovation was hemorrhaging money long before the roof leak was discovered.
Several departments were hemorrhaging money while the main business stayed profitable.
Word forms
| third person singular | hemorrhages money |
|---|---|
| past tense | hemorrhaged money |
| past participle | hemorrhaged money |
| -ing form | hemorrhaging money |
Common combinations
- company hemorrhaging money
- The company was hemorrhaging money for years before the sale.
- keep hemorrhaging money
- The theater will keep hemorrhaging money unless ticket prices rise.
- stop hemorrhaging money
- We must stop hemorrhaging money on unused office space.
- hemorrhaging money every month
- The app was hemorrhaging money every month.
- hemorrhaging cash
- The restaurant is hemorrhaging cash after the rent increase.
Synonyms and how they differ
- bleeding money
- Bleeding money is a slightly more casual version and suggests the same steady drain, but hemorrhaging sounds more severe.
- losing money
- Losing money is neutral and can mean any loss, while hemorrhaging stresses a fast, serious one.
- burning through cash
- Burning through cash focuses on spending quickly and not necessarily on a loss caused by a fault.
- running at a loss
- Running at a loss is plain and formal, with none of the dramatic image of hemorrhaging.
Opposites
Word family
- hemorrhage noun
- heavy bleeding, or a rapid serious loss of something
- hemorrhage verb
- to bleed heavily, or to lose something fast
- hemorrhagic adjective
- relating to heavy bleeding
Commonly confused: hemorrhaging money or haemorrhoids?
hemorrhaging money vs haemorrhoids
Haemorrhoids are swollen veins near the anus and are unrelated to losing money, though the spelling looks similar.
Practice
Because of poor planning, the new factory is ___ and may close within a year.
Choose one answer.
Hemorrhaging money means losing large sums fast, which explains why closure is possible. The other options are positive or neutral and do not suggest closing.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “hemorrhaging money”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.