burn out

1. 1.

   melt, break, or become otherwise unusable

   “The lightbulbs blew out”

   “The fuse blew”

   Synonymsblow outblow

   Broaderfail

Questions about burn out

What does burn out mean?

burn out means "melt, break, or become otherwise unusable".

What is another word for burn out?

Close synonyms include blow out, blow. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is burn out a common word?

burn out is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.