What does “spolpato” mean in Italian?

Spolpato comes from polpa, “flesh/pulp,” with the s- prefix that strips it away — so literally it’s “de-fleshed,” a bone with the meat gnawed off. Figuratively it means picked clean or drained dry. Calling a prize fund un montepremi spolpato says the pot has been stripped down to almost nothing. It’s a far more vivid, physical image than a plain “emptied out.”

You’ll meet the verb spolpare (“to strip the flesh from”) and the simile spolpato come un osso, “stripped like a bone.” It works for money — ci hanno spolpato con le tasse, “those taxes bled us dry” — and for a person looking gaunt or worn out. The same s- + root pattern recurs across Italian: sbucciare (to peel), svuotare (to empty), giving learners a productive way to read new words.