break the bank

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break the bank (third-person singular simple present breaks the bank, present participle breaking the bank, simple past broke the bank, past participle broken the bank)

1. (intransitive) At a casino etc., to win all the money that is available to be paid.
   • 2001, Richard Swinburne, Epistemic Justification:

     Or, similarly, consider the man determined to break the bank at Monte Carlo by studying the frequencies with which a certain roulette wheel lands in the red

2. (intransitive, idiomatic) To exhaust one's financial resources.
   • 2001, Tom Davidson, Lorna Gentry, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Home Security:

     Home Security Doesn't Have to Break the Bank