don't burn the candle at both ends
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
To exhaust oneself by doing too many things at once
Literally: burning a candle at both ends
Examples
She's been working and partying non-stop, don't burn the candle at both ends
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed on English Wikiquote “English proverbs” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31). Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “don't burn the candle at both ends” mean?
To exhaust oneself by doing too many things at once Literally: burning a candle at both ends
Is “don't burn the candle at both ends” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.