See burn the candle at both ends in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
Download JSON data for burn the candle at both ends meaning in English (7.9kB)
{
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{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "fr",
"3": "brûler la chandelle par les deux bouts"
},
"expansion": "Calque of French brûler la chandelle par les deux bouts",
"name": "cal"
},
{
"args": {
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},
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"nodot": "1"
},
"expansion": "First attested in the 18th century",
"name": "etydate"
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],
"etymology_text": "Calque of French brûler la chandelle par les deux bouts. First attested in the 18th century, originally in the sense “to be doubly profligate”.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "burns the candle at both ends",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "burning the candle at both ends",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "burned the candle at both ends",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "burned the candle at both ends",
"tags": [
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "burnt the candle at both ends",
"tags": [
"participle",
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]
},
{
"form": "burnt the candle at both ends",
"tags": [
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]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "*",
"past2": "burnt the candle at both ends"
},
"expansion": "burn the candle at both ends (third-person singular simple present burns the candle at both ends, present participle burning the candle at both ends, simple past and past participle burned the candle at both ends or burnt the candle at both ends)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"related": [
{
"_dis1": "50 50",
"word": "burn the midnight oil"
},
{
"_dis1": "50 50",
"word": "not worth the candle"
},
{
"_dis1": "50 50",
"word": "the candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"categories": [],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1911, Edna Ferber, chapter 8, in Dawn O'Hara, The Girl Who Laughed",
"text": "Von Gerhard's face was unsmiling. “So,” he said, slowly. “You burn the candle at both ends. All day you write, is it not so? And at night you come home to write still more? Ach, Kindchen!—Na, we shall change all that. […]",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2012, John Mulaney, 0:01:05 from the start, in John Mulaney: New in Town",
"text": "I don’t look older, I just look worse, I think. Honestly, when I’m walking down the street, no one’s ever like, “Hey, look at that man!” I think they’re just like “Whoa! That tall child looks terrible! Get some rest, tall child! You can't keep burning the candle at both ends!\" […] Just take my kindergarten photo and yellow the teeth and put bags under the eyes and be like “This is what he would look like now.” […]",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To work hard night and day; to sleep late and wake up early; to overwork or overexert oneself."
],
"id": "en-burn_the_candle_at_both_ends-en-verb-twqj0zhZ",
"links": [
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"overwork"
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[
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],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) To work hard night and day; to sleep late and wake up early; to overwork or overexert oneself."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
],
"translations": [
{
"_dis1": "98 2",
"code": "ar",
"lang": "Arabic",
"sense": "work hard night and day",
"word": "حرق الشمعة من كلتا الجِهَتَين"
},
{
"_dis1": "98 2",
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"sense": "work hard night and day",
"word": "夙興夜寐"
},
{
"_dis1": "98 2",
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "sùxīngyèmèi",
"sense": "work hard night and day",
"word": "夙兴夜寐"
},
{
"_dis1": "98 2",
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "work hard night and day",
"word": "polttaa kynttilää molemmista päistä"
},
{
"_dis1": "98 2",
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "work hard night and day",
"word": "polttaa kynttiläänsä molemmista päistä"
},
{
"_dis1": "98 2",
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "work hard night and day",
"word": "brûler la chandelle par les deux bouts"
},
{
"_dis1": "98 2",
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "work hard night and day",
"word": "két végén égeti a gyertyát"
},
{
"_dis1": "98 2",
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "work hard night and day",
"word": "bruciare la candela ad entrambe le estremità"
},
{
"_dis1": "98 2",
"alt": "する",
"code": "ja",
"lang": "Japanese",
"sense": "work hard night and day",
"word": "過重労働"
},
{
"_dis1": "98 2",
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "work hard night and day",
"word": "pracować od świtu do nocy"
},
{
"_dis1": "98 2",
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "work hard night and day",
"word": "dar um duro danado"
},
{
"_dis1": "98 2",
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "work hard night and day",
"word": "matar-se de trabalhar"
},
{
"_dis1": "98 2",
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "rabótatʹ na iznós",
"sense": "work hard night and day",
"tags": [
"imperfective"
],
"word": "рабо́тать на изно́с"
},
{
"_dis1": "98 2",
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "gorétʹ na rabóte",
"sense": "work hard night and day",
"tags": [
"imperfective"
],
"word": "горе́ть на рабо́те"
},
{
"_dis1": "98 2",
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "work hard night and day",
"word": "quemar la vela por los dos cabos"
},
{
"_dis1": "98 2",
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "work hard night and day",
"word": "bränna sitt ljus i båda ändar"
}
]
},
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "43 57",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
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"source": "w+disamb"
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"ref": "1866 May, “Large and Small Companies”, in The Bankers’ Magazine […], volume 26, pages 530–1",
"text": "The dividends […] were divided from capital and not from profit—for, in truth, the concern never earned a penny in the sense in which the term profit is commonly employed. […] The pipe-making concern burned the candle at both ends, and burned it steadily; […]",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1892 February 17, H. M. Grant, “What Do We Learn?”, in Proceedings of the Sixteenth Annual Meeting of the Fire Underwriters’ Association of the Pacific, published 1892, page 154",
"text": "And another thing not to be forgotten is that the expense rate, the cost of production, has kept pace with the reduction in premiums, thus burning the candle at both ends; […]",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1905 March, William Hamilton Osborne, “The Transfer of Thorneycroft”, in The Smart Set, volume 15, number 3, page 95",
"text": "Speaking financially, Mrs. Ormsby had burned the candle at both ends. Her establishment was costly on the one hand; her pleasures costly on the other.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1963, Karl Bradshaw, “Statement of Karl Bradshaw, Duckwater, Nev.”, in Review of the Taylor Grazing Act: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Public Lands […] United States Senate, Eighty-Eighth Congress, First Session […], page 318",
"text": "Now the Department of the Interior is trying to burn the candle at both ends by narrowing the margin of profit and at the same time cutting down the amount of production.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1989, Dragon Wars (video game manual), Interplay Productions, page 1",
"text": "Oceana is a world younger than our own, wedded to a star with but a fraction of the life expectancy of Sol. It is a world burning the candle at both ends, enjoying twice the light in half the time, and spinning all the faster toward annihilation and the Void.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To waste or expend resources twice over; to be doubly profligate."
],
"id": "en-burn_the_candle_at_both_ends-en-verb-7ZWrh0pq",
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[
"waste",
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],
[
"resource",
"resource"
],
[
"profligate",
"profligate"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic, dated) To waste or expend resources twice over; to be doubly profligate."
],
"tags": [
"dated",
"idiomatic"
]
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"_dis1": "50 50",
"word": "burn one's candle at both ends"
}
],
"word": "burn the candle at both ends"
}
{
"categories": [
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English terms calqued from French",
"English terms derived from French",
"English verbs"
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"args": {
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"3": "brûler la chandelle par les deux bouts"
},
"expansion": "Calque of French brûler la chandelle par les deux bouts",
"name": "cal"
},
{
"args": {
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},
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"1": "18th century",
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"expansion": "First attested in the 18th century",
"name": "etydate"
}
],
"etymology_text": "Calque of French brûler la chandelle par les deux bouts. First attested in the 18th century, originally in the sense “to be doubly profligate”.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "burns the candle at both ends",
"tags": [
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"third-person"
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},
{
"form": "burning the candle at both ends",
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{
"form": "burned the candle at both ends",
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{
"form": "burned the candle at both ends",
"tags": [
"past"
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{
"form": "burnt the candle at both ends",
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"form": "burnt the candle at both ends",
"tags": [
"past"
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"past2": "burnt the candle at both ends"
},
"expansion": "burn the candle at both ends (third-person singular simple present burns the candle at both ends, present participle burning the candle at both ends, simple past and past participle burned the candle at both ends or burnt the candle at both ends)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"related": [
{
"word": "burn the midnight oil"
},
{
"word": "not worth the candle"
},
{
"word": "the candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English idioms",
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1911, Edna Ferber, chapter 8, in Dawn O'Hara, The Girl Who Laughed",
"text": "Von Gerhard's face was unsmiling. “So,” he said, slowly. “You burn the candle at both ends. All day you write, is it not so? And at night you come home to write still more? Ach, Kindchen!—Na, we shall change all that. […]",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2012, John Mulaney, 0:01:05 from the start, in John Mulaney: New in Town",
"text": "I don’t look older, I just look worse, I think. Honestly, when I’m walking down the street, no one’s ever like, “Hey, look at that man!” I think they’re just like “Whoa! That tall child looks terrible! Get some rest, tall child! You can't keep burning the candle at both ends!\" […] Just take my kindergarten photo and yellow the teeth and put bags under the eyes and be like “This is what he would look like now.” […]",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To work hard night and day; to sleep late and wake up early; to overwork or overexert oneself."
],
"links": [
[
"work",
"work"
],
[
"hard",
"hard"
],
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"night and day",
"night and day"
],
[
"overwork",
"overwork"
],
[
"overexert",
"overexert"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) To work hard night and day; to sleep late and wake up early; to overwork or overexert oneself."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English dated terms",
"English idioms",
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1866 May, “Large and Small Companies”, in The Bankers’ Magazine […], volume 26, pages 530–1",
"text": "The dividends […] were divided from capital and not from profit—for, in truth, the concern never earned a penny in the sense in which the term profit is commonly employed. […] The pipe-making concern burned the candle at both ends, and burned it steadily; […]",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1892 February 17, H. M. Grant, “What Do We Learn?”, in Proceedings of the Sixteenth Annual Meeting of the Fire Underwriters’ Association of the Pacific, published 1892, page 154",
"text": "And another thing not to be forgotten is that the expense rate, the cost of production, has kept pace with the reduction in premiums, thus burning the candle at both ends; […]",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1905 March, William Hamilton Osborne, “The Transfer of Thorneycroft”, in The Smart Set, volume 15, number 3, page 95",
"text": "Speaking financially, Mrs. Ormsby had burned the candle at both ends. Her establishment was costly on the one hand; her pleasures costly on the other.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1963, Karl Bradshaw, “Statement of Karl Bradshaw, Duckwater, Nev.”, in Review of the Taylor Grazing Act: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Public Lands […] United States Senate, Eighty-Eighth Congress, First Session […], page 318",
"text": "Now the Department of the Interior is trying to burn the candle at both ends by narrowing the margin of profit and at the same time cutting down the amount of production.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1989, Dragon Wars (video game manual), Interplay Productions, page 1",
"text": "Oceana is a world younger than our own, wedded to a star with but a fraction of the life expectancy of Sol. It is a world burning the candle at both ends, enjoying twice the light in half the time, and spinning all the faster toward annihilation and the Void.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To waste or expend resources twice over; to be doubly profligate."
],
"links": [
[
"waste",
"waste"
],
[
"expend",
"expend"
],
[
"resource",
"resource"
],
[
"profligate",
"profligate"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic, dated) To waste or expend resources twice over; to be doubly profligate."
],
"tags": [
"dated",
"idiomatic"
]
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "burn one's candle at both ends"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "ar",
"lang": "Arabic",
"sense": "work hard night and day",
"word": "حرق الشمعة من كلتا الجِهَتَين"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"sense": "work hard night and day",
"word": "夙興夜寐"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "sùxīngyèmèi",
"sense": "work hard night and day",
"word": "夙兴夜寐"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "work hard night and day",
"word": "polttaa kynttilää molemmista päistä"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "work hard night and day",
"word": "polttaa kynttiläänsä molemmista päistä"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "work hard night and day",
"word": "brûler la chandelle par les deux bouts"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "work hard night and day",
"word": "két végén égeti a gyertyát"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "work hard night and day",
"word": "bruciare la candela ad entrambe le estremità"
},
{
"alt": "する",
"code": "ja",
"lang": "Japanese",
"sense": "work hard night and day",
"word": "過重労働"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "work hard night and day",
"word": "pracować od świtu do nocy"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "work hard night and day",
"word": "dar um duro danado"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "work hard night and day",
"word": "matar-se de trabalhar"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "rabótatʹ na iznós",
"sense": "work hard night and day",
"tags": [
"imperfective"
],
"word": "рабо́тать на изно́с"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "gorétʹ na rabóte",
"sense": "work hard night and day",
"tags": [
"imperfective"
],
"word": "горе́ть на рабо́те"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "work hard night and day",
"word": "quemar la vela por los dos cabos"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "work hard night and day",
"word": "bränna sitt ljus i båda ändar"
}
],
"word": "burn the candle at both ends"
}
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-30 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (210104c and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
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