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burn out. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
burn out, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
burn out in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
burn out you have here. The definition of the word
burn out will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
burn out, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Pronunciation
Verb
burn out (third-person singular simple present burns out, present participle burning out, simple past and past participle burned out or (mostly Commonwealth) burnt out)
- (transitive) To destroy by fire.
1941 April, “The Why and the Wherefore: Hawes Junction Collision”, in Railway Magazine, page 191 (the collision occurred in 1910):All four engines and the entire train were derailed, and owing to the fact that all the vehicles except the sleeping cars were gas-lit, the whole of the coaching stock except the two rear brakes was burned out, beginning with the two front coaches, which were completely wrecked.
- (intransitive) To become extinguished due to lack of fuel.
- Coordinate term: flame out
The candle finally burned out.
- 1847, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, Chapter XVIII
- Mr. Mason, shivering as some one chanced to open the door, asked for more coal to be put on the fire, which had burnt out its flame, though its mass of cinder still shone hot and red. The footman who brought the coal, in going out, stopped near Mr. Eshton's chair, and said something to him in a low voice, of which I heard only the words, "old woman,"—"quite troublesome."
- (intransitive) To become nonfunctional (especially of lightbulbs or similar light-producing devices).
- (intransitive) To tire due to overwork; to overwork to their limit.
After six months of twelve-hour workdays, most people just burn out and quit.
- (transitive) To cause (someone) to tire due to overwork; to cause (someone) to overwork to one's limit.
- (intransitive, slang, uncommon) To end one's shift at a job.
I start my shift at three in the afternoon, and get to burn out at midnight.
- (intransitive, automotive) To have one's tires skid against the ground; to peel off, peel out.
- (idiomatic) To make (someone) unavailable for work involving exposure to ionizing radiation by employing (the person) in such work until the person's accumulated exposure reaches the maximum permitted for an administrative period, typically a year.
The repairs on this nuclear reactor have burned out every welder in the province.
Derived terms
Translations
to extinguish due to lack of fuel
- Finnish: palaa loppuun
- Hungarian: elég (hu), végigég
- Italian: spegnersi, estinguersi (it)
- Malay: padam (ms)
- Occitan: abenar (oc), atudar (oc), escantir (oc)
- Russian: выгора́ть (ru) impf (vygorátʹ), вы́гореть (ru) pf (výgoretʹ), сгора́ть (ru) impf (sgorátʹ), сгоре́ть (ru) pf (sgorétʹ), перегора́ть (ru) impf (peregorátʹ), перегоре́ть (ru) pf (peregorétʹ) (globe)
- Swedish: falna (sv), brinna ut
- Turkish: sönmek (tr)
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to become nonfunctional (especially of lightbulbs or similar light-producing devices)
to make (someone) unavailable for work involving exposure to ionizing radiation
Translations to be checked
Noun
burn out (uncountable)
- Nonstandard spelling of burnout.
2002, Chuck Purdy, The Street Saint: Emergency in the Emergency Services:His burn out hadn't been caused by too many dead bodies; it was from spending his life doing for people what most of them had refused to do for themselves.
Anagrams