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."
Edit: To clarify, I am talking about using the word "drink" as a mass noun with no article, equivalent to "beer" or "water." Using it as a verb ("I drink to forget my troubles") or as a singular verb ("Let's go out and get a drink") are often used to imply alcohol in many contexts.
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 profitsthe proceeds 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.
I agree with others who said to squander a specific thing seems odd, although as Len said, it is the sort of thing someone might say purposely to make a point.
To say "squandered everything" is another common phrase. For instance you could say "he squadered everything he had on drink: his car, his house and finally his family". Even though ordinarily you don't spend your family, the implication is clear.
In your specific example I wouldn't use squandered at all. The first, most natural, sentence I came up with is "he sold it for drink" or (better grammar) "he sold it to buy drink".
Note that when I went to Google to see if "squadered everything on drink" was really a common phrase the first few hits were from the bible. No idea what that might mean to you but I thought it was worth mentioning.
Something like "He drank his whole life away" would definitely imply that it was "wasted on alcohol". I don't know that "He drank his car away" has quite the same connotation. Maybe something like "He drank away his prized/beloved car" might be better. Saying he "drank away" or "drank his ___ away" I think is much clearer to what you mean.
