run out of steam
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
To lose energy or motivation
Literally: a machine using up its steam power
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
This is how the record companies want it, because if one act inexplicably runs out of steam it's no problem to find another.
In all honesty, the history of commercial rose - growing is a trail of trumpet - blowing and publicity, so often followed by silence as the subjects ran out of steam and fell by the wayside.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. 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 “run out of steam” mean?
To lose energy or motivation Literally: a machine using up its steam power
Is “run out of steam” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.