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.
A team that was being run into the ground by a superstar and his agent just regained control of its identity again.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 2, 2025
I wanted to quit the show before it got really bad and run into the ground.
From New York Times • Jul. 28, 2022
Commenting on the pay ballot results, UCU general secretary Jo Grady said staff had "had enough of pay and working conditions being run into the ground".
From BBC • Nov. 5, 2021
“How many businesses have been run into the ground with such a strategy?”
From Washington Post • Jul. 26, 2019
There are dullards in the United States as well as elsewhere; and nothing can well be more ghastly than American humour run into the ground.
From The Land of Contrasts A Briton's View of His American Kin by Muirhead, James F. (James Fullarton)
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.
