wear out

verb

wore out; worn out; wearing out; wears out

transitive verb

1

: tire, exhaust

2

: to make useless especially by long or hard usage

3

: erase, efface

4

: to endure through : outlast

wear out a storm

5

: to consume (time) tediously

wear out idle days

intransitive verb

: to become useless from long or excessive wear or use

Synonyms of wear out

• wear
• kill
• tire
• exhaust
• drain
• burn out

Examples of wear out in a Sentence

keeping up with twin toddlers wears me out

Recent Examples on the Web

According to Jewish tradition, worn out sacred texts can’t be casually discarded; instead, they are stored in a geniza, a repository usually located within a synagogue or buried at a Jewish cemetery. — Angie Leventis Lourgos, Chicago Tribune, 1 Nov. 2026

Electric trucks weigh thousands of pounds more than traditional trucks, so their tires wear out faster and need replacing more often. — Los Angeles Times, 29 Oct. 2026

Armrest covers handle the high-use areas that wear out first and double as a coordinated accent. — Lauren Jarvis-Gibson, Charlotte Observer, 23 Oct. 2026

Then the beeps will become evenly spaced until the alarm is silenced, the prongs dry out, or the battery wears out. — John R. Delaney, PC Magazine, 19 Oct. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 1

Rhymes for wear out

• about
• bailout
• blackout
• blowout
• breakout
• burnout
• buyout
• checkout
• closeout
• cutout
• devout
• dropout

Kids Definition

wear out

verb

1

: to tire gradually

worn out from exercising

2

: to make or become useless by wear