Rrerku

I am struggling with how to express the idea that somebody sold out some article of his possession (computer, car, house, etc.) and used the money to buy himself alcohol to drink.

For example,

-- Where is his computer?

-- Well, he squandered it on drink.

Dictionaries show that "to squander on drink" is okay; but when I type in Google Search "squandered his car on drink", I get zero results, which makes me think that there might be some better and more common ways of expressing the same thought.

While you can squander money on drink, you cannot generally squander anything else on drink. The top dictionary definition of "squander" is "to spend or use (money, time, etc.) extravagantly or wastefully." You cannot "spend" a car or a computer, so it doesn't make sense to squander them either.

Strangely, using "drink" idiomatically to mean "alcohol" is almost always done in the context of wasting money, time, or opportunity:

He blew his money on drink.
She had so much potential, but she wasted it all on gambling and drink.

Otherwise, native speakers tend to use a different slang term, such as "booze", or a more literal or specific term like "liquor," "beer," or even just "alchohol."

Here are some alternatives that I think communicates what you're trying to say. I'm ordering them roughly from most straightforward to most judgmental:

He sold his car to buy alcohol.

He traded his car for beer money.

He sold his car and blew the money on booze.

"Squander" is a funny-sounding word, and normally used only in specific contexts. The most common phrases using "squander," as far as I'm aware, are:

• To squander money / resources


• To squander goodwill


• To squander your time


• To squander an opportunity

I think one normally squanders money on something. The money could come from selling an item, but you have to make that explicit. Try something like:

-- Well, he sold his computer and squandered his profits on drink.

You "squander" something consumable, like time, money, effort and so on. It sounds unusual to "squander" a computer because you don't use it by consuming or exchanging it.

However, precisely because it is unusual, as a native speaker I would interpret "Well, he squandered his computer on drink" as a witticism. I would both understand what you meant and think you were being very clever.