run into the ground
Idioms-
Pursue a topic until it has been thoroughly discussed or exhausted, as in They've run the abortion issue into the ground .
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Ruin or destroy, as in During her brief time as chief executive Marjorie just about ran the company into the ground . Both usages allude to pushing something so far that it is, in effect, buried. [Early 1800s]
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
It’s a winning start, and likely means that the only company being run into the ground is the fictional one at the heart of the Ladder.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 10, 2024
I wanted to quit the show before it got really bad and run into the ground.
From New York Times • Jul. 28, 2022
A sure sign that a comic strip has run out of creative or even mildly amusing observations is its return to a recurring theme that other cartoon artists have run into the ground.
From Washington Post • Apr. 29, 2022
Despite that public backing, though, Dicker was dropped for seven games and was "run into the ground".
From BBC • Nov. 13, 2020
In the seventeenth century, the art had run its course, and gave place to a taste for cameos, which in its turn was run into the ground.
From Arts and Crafts in the Middle Ages A Description of Mediaeval Workmanship in Several of the Departments of Applied Art, Together with Some Account of Special Artisans in the Early Renaissance by Addison, Julia de Wolf Gibbs
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
