English

Verb

burn out

1. To extinguish due to lack of fuel.

   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."

2. (idiomatic) To tire due to overwork.

   After six months of twelve-hour workdays, most people just burn out and quit.

3. (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.

Translations

Noun

burn out ‎(uncountable)

1. (idiomatic) (of a person) The condition of tiredness due to overwork.
   • 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.