There is a saying in Spanish that says; echar la casa por la ventana, is there a word in English for this?

Question

This means, to sell everything at cost price, very cheap

I just did a little editing on your title, hope you don't mind :) - Kiwi-Girl, Oct 13, 2011

Answer 1

Echar la casa por la ventana is more like let's do it, let's spend all our money, as if there were no tomorrow!

English I have found:

let's spare no expense

The Spanish idiom tirar la casa por la ventana (to throw the house out of the window) seems to have followed the same broadening process over time. The origin of the idiom goes back to the end of the XVIIIth and beginning of the XIXth centuries when it was traditional in Spain for people who won the lottery to throw their furniture and old possessions out of their windows so as to show off their wealth and indicate that they were about to commence a new life of luxury (Buitrago, 2002).7 Knowing this, we may assume that people living in Spain at that time must have used the expression “literally” to convey roughly the same implications.These might have included the implication that the people who throw their possessions out of their windows are wasting or losing money, that they would need to spend a great deal of money buying new things, that this expenditure of money is unnecessary, that they are not behaving in a very sensible or discriminating way, etc. Familiarity with the [removed]in its literal sense) may have led native speakers to start using the expression loosely, to refer to situations in which someone is spending or losing large amounts of money somehow unreasonably.

ohhhh, I just saw:

let's paint the town in red

Does that sound idiomatic to you?

"Let's paint the town red"= ir de juerga - lagartijaverde, Oct 13, 2011

Answer 2

In the United States, we would say:

"A going out of business sale" or "a close-out sale" if the company/store was selling all their products at very cheap prices because they will soon be closed forever.

Or, similar to your Spanish saying, "selling everything except for the kitchen sink." This means everything in the store must go, usually for very cheap prices.

Hope that helps!

Nice. - --Mariana--, Oct 13, 2011

Answer 3

iam native spanish speaker and i agree with HEIDITA. spend a lot of money in something

I agree, this is an expression, that often needs context. It can mean, "let's splurge!" - SeñoraPuskar, May 23, 2017

Answer 4

A few references

echar/tirar la casa por la ventana

Answer 5

sell off

Phrasal Verbs:

sell off

To get rid of by selling, often at reduced prices.

Answer 6

Selling everything cheaply is also called a fire sale.

Sorry, Lorenzo, that was definitely a saying that we can't print here. :) - --Mariana--, Oct 13, 2011

When I was growing up, the newer meaning did not exist yet, so I still use it in the old sense. However, I can see your point. - lorenzo9, Oct 13, 2011