burnout

[ burn-out ]

noun

1. a fire that is totally destructive of something.
2. Also burn-out. fatigue, frustration, or apathy resulting from prolonged stress, overwork, or intense activity.
3. Rocketry.
   1. the termination of effective combustion in a rocket engine, due to exhaustion of propellant.
   2. the end of the powered portion of a rocket's flight.
4. Electricity. the breakdown of a lamp, motor, or other electrical device due to the heat created by the current flowing through it.

Word History and Origins

Origin of burnout¹

First recorded in 1900–05; noun use of verb phrase burn out

Example Sentences

Work-from-home has erased the already blurry lines between office hours and our own time, leading to a dramatic spike in workers struggling with burnout, surveys suggest.

From Ozy

Many doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers are struggling with burnout.

From Popular-Science

It needed to be about all my friends, and we were all nerds, and the only other people we related to were the burnouts, who we called freaks in our high school.

From Washington Post

Too much stress with not enough rest and you get injury, illness, or burnout.

From Outside Online

A July survey by online employment platform Monster found that 69 percent of respondents were struggling with burnout, a dramatic rise from 20 percent two months earlier.

From Ozy

The book is a memoir that highlights the problem of physician burnout in the midst of our by now decades-long health care crisis.

From The Daily Beast

It wins because we can relate and because there is a certain amount of suffering-burnout at play, too.

From The Daily Beast

A new study shows U.S. doctors have a burnout rate of 38 percent versus 28 percent for the general population.

From The Daily Beast

But the burnout described in this and so many other articles is not really a malady.

From The Daily Beast

Burnout is a real problem, with real downstream effects—poor employee performance, higher turnover, clinical depression.

From The Daily Beast

It would take practically absolute simultaneity to overload to the point of burnout to those Strett generators.

From Project Gutenberg

Burnout of the second stage came suddenly, and we heaved slightly against our belts as the springs in our seats pushed back out.

From Project Gutenberg

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