you cannot burn a candle at both ends
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
You cannot exhaust yourself by doing too many things at once.
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
Không thể làm quá nhiều việc cùng một lúc mà không kiệt sức
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: burning a candle at both ends would cause it to melt quickly
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Sources & notes
Listed on Wikipedia “List of proverbial phrases” (CC BY-SA 4.0, 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 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “you cannot burn a candle at both ends” mean?
You cannot exhaust yourself by doing too many things at once. Literally: burning a candle at both ends would cause it to melt quickly
Is “you cannot burn a candle at both ends” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.