burning out

verb

present participle of burn out
as in wearing
to use up all the physical energy of working 12-hour days at that job just burned me out

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of burning out The candles are all different lengths, gradually burning out, and there’s no way of knowing how long each one is. — Literary Hub, 24 Sep. 2026 Ngy worked construction and fished in his free time, eventually burning out after too many layoffs and inconsistent work following the housing crash of 2008. — Joe Cermele, Outdoor Life, 9 Sep. 2026 How do leaders unlock the efficiency gains of AI without burning out their teams? — Khadim Batti, Forbes.com, 17 Aug. 2026 Daily Cardio Load indicates how much to push your workouts each day to make progress in training without burning out. — Andrew Gebhart, PC Magazine, 5 Aug. 2026 The fire has destroyed 100 hectares of trees and was burning out of control but was not immediately threatening homes. — ABC News, 4 Aug. 2026 The Red Bull Showrun, a live high-speed motorsports demonstration, will feature Formula 1 cars burning out and doing donuts on a roughly half-mile stretch of Hank Aaron Drive. — Aj Willingham, AJC.com, 31 July 2026 Shifting and gusting winds, as well as arid conditions, complicated massive efforts to limit the spread of the monster blaze burning out of control since midweek in France’s Gironde region, where Bordeaux is located. — Mark Carlson, Fortune, 27 July 2026 North winds pushed the smoke from some 900 wildfires, including about 120 burning out of control in Canada, south and southeast into northern Illinois. — Charles Selle, Chicago Tribune, 20 July 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for burning out
  1. wearing
  2. killing
  3. exhausting
  4. tiring
  5. knocking out
  6. wearing out
  7. washing out
  8. draining
Verb
  • For a decade, hundreds of Black women and girls have gathered in Kansas City wearing curls, coils, locs, braids and Afros for an annual photograph intended to challenge narrow ideas about what beautiful hair is supposed to look like.
    — Kansas City Star, Kansas City Star, 2 Oct. 2026
  • Dixie D’Amelio sauntered in wearing a shimmering black Gucci dress.
    — Elise Taylor, Vanity Fair, 2 Oct. 2026
Definition of wearing
Verb
  • California’s plan to save coastal homes from El Niño could end up killing beaches.
    — Deputy Managing Editor, Los Angeles Times, 3 Oct. 2026
  • Attorneys for the men argued Harris fired the first shots, killing Turner and setting off the gun battle.
    — Daniel Hunt, Sacbee.com, 3 Oct. 2026
Definition of killing
Verb
  • The gentle squeeze around your legs provides other surprising health benefits on exhausting travel days.
    — Olivia Young, Travel + Leisure, 27 Sep. 2026
  • Commanders should seek positional advantages without exhausting their soldiers, manipulate the enemy’s movements when possible, and recognize when circumstances make pursuit or attack unwise.
    — Ethan Teekah, Encyclopedia Britannica, 11 Sep. 2026
Definition of exhausting
Verb
  • In the Los Angeles Times, Seema Mehta and Nicole Nixon report that Steyer’s ability to appear everywhere ended up tiring out voters.
    — David Weigel, semafor.com, 10 June 2026
  • Meanwhile, Shenzhen startup EngineAI can be forgiven for tiring out its PM01 humanoid.
    — New Atlas, New Atlas, 7 June 2026
Definition of tiring
Verb
  • Residents of coastal communities in the Northeast slogged through floodwaters for a second day as a powerful nor’easter pummeled the shoreline Sunday, knocking out power to tens of thousands of homes.
    — Leah Willingham, Los Angeles Times, 27 Sep. 2026
  • The southpaw then made a big statement knocking out former contender Dillian Whyte in the first round last year.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 28 Aug. 2026
Definition of knocking out
Verb
  • This is a sign that internal parts like your clutch or transmission bands are wearing out.
    — Michael Kurko, USA Today, 17 Aug. 2026
  • Others share stories of donut tires wearing out quickly or making their vehicles feel unstable at highway speeds.
    — Jessica Safavimehr, Southern Living, 7 Aug. 2026
Definition of wearing out
Verb
  • Even in blazing sunlight, the screen cuts right through the glare without washing out.
    — Kimberly Gedeon, PC Magazine, 30 Sep. 2026
  • The intense lunar spotlight casts significant glare across the cluster, heavily washing out its faint blue reflection nebulosity.
    — Daisy Dobrijevic, Space.com, 30 Sep. 2026
Definition of washing out
Verb
  • This severe segmentation can be emotionally draining and erodes commitment to the organization.
    — Catherine Bell, Forbes.com, 1 Oct. 2026
  • Teams devised an unprecedented bit of spaceship surgery to replace the valve without draining the propellant and disassembling the spacecraft, steps that would have triggered a much longer delay.
    — Stephen Clark, ArsTechnica, 1 Oct. 2026
Definition of draining

Browse Nearby Words

burning one's ears
burning out
burning (up)
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Burning out.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/burning%20out. Accessed 4 Oct. 2026.

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