burned out

Meaning

This expression describes a state of extreme physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion caused by prolonged stress or overworking. It is very common in professional contexts to describe employees who have lost motivation and energy due to heavy workloads.

Examples

• After working eighty hours a week for six months, she was completely burned out.

  After working eighty hours a week for six months, she was completely burned out.

• If you don't take a vacation soon, you're going to get burned out.

  If you don't take a vacation soon, you're going to get burned out.

• Many healthcare workers felt burned out during the busiest seasons of the pandemic.

  Many healthcare workers felt burned out during the busiest seasons of the pandemic.

• I need to change careers because I'm totally burned out on software development.

  I need to change careers because I'm totally burned out on software development.

• The management is trying to prevent employees from becoming burned out.

  The management is trying to prevent employees from becoming burned out.

Common Mistakes

• ✗ I feel very burning out after this project.

  ✓ I feel very burned out after this project.

  Use the past participle 'burned out' (or 'burnt out') to describe the state of exhaustion, not the present participle 'burning'.

• ✗ He is burned out of his job.

  ✓ He is burned out by his job.

  The correct prepositions to pair with 'burned out' are 'by' (indicating the cause) or 'on' (indicating the activity you are tired of).

Related Expressions

Practice

• Working without any weekends off made him feel totally ___ .

  💡 Extremely exhausted and demotivated from work.

  Show answer

  burned out

• To avoid getting ___ , you should set clear boundaries between work and life.

  💡 Reaching a point of mental collapse from stress.

  Show answer

  burned out