fatigued
Americanadjective
Usage
What does fatigued mean? Fatigued means physically or mentally tired, as in The fatigued construction workers decided to finish work for the day. Fatigued is a synonym of words like tired, exhausted, and weary—all words to describe a person who is out of energy. Fatigued describes a state in which you desperately want to sleep or rest. Fatigued comes from the noun fatigue, which means weariness or lethargy. If you are unfatigued, you are not fatigued, that is, you have energy. Example: I took a nap after work because I was fatigued from unloading trucks all day.
Synonym Usage
See tired 1.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of fatigued
Explanation
If you're fatigued, you're exhausted. You're bound to be fatigued after climbing a mountain — or babysitting for five year-old triplets. When you're so wiped out and tired that you can barely brush your teeth and fall into bed at night, you're truly fatigued. It's another way to say "tired," "exhausted," "beat," or "tuckered out." The adjective fatigued comes from fatigue, originally a French word meaning "weariness," from the verb fatiguer, "to tire," which has a Latin root, fatigare, "to make weary."
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.
Rescuers have brought in heavy machinery to help remove large sections of roofs and walls and are visibly fatigued after days of grueling work.
From Barron's ● Aug. 16, 2026
It remains to be seen if these strategies will work—some voters will be energized; others will become fatigued by it and lose interest.
From Slate ● Aug. 3, 2026
"His voice is often unrecognisable, he is fatigued and confused why the British government aren't doing more to get him home safely," she says.
From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2026
In recent years, controllers say they have grown increasingly frayed and fatigued due to chronic staffing shortages and frequent equipment outages.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 23, 2026
When the bound man was fatigued, the three shifted the rope to another of their number, and so made their way over days to Hampton and Lord Dunmore.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson
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.
