burn the candle at both ends

What it means

To exhaust yourself by working or being active from early morning until late at night, or by trying to do too much at once. It warns that such a pace will eventually drain your energy and health.

Examples

• She's burning the candle at both ends studying and working full-time.
• If you keep burning the candle at both ends, you'll get ill.
• He burned the candle at both ends all month and finally collapsed.
• Between the new baby and his job, he's burning the candle at both ends.

Where it comes from

From a 17th-century image of a candle lit at both ends to give more light but used up twice as fast; it originally referred to wasting wealth before meaning wasting energy.

Related idioms