burn the candle at both ends

VERB

do too much

Synonyms

WEAK

bite off more than one can chew go to extremes go too far keep one's nose to the grindstone overdo overextend oneself slave spread oneself too thin stay on the treadmill take on too much

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

One thinks of what a journalist wrote about another hard-living star: “Keith Richards doesn’t so much burn the candle at both ends as apply a blow torch to the middle.”

From Washington Post • May 18, 2021

“I didn’t just burn the candle at both ends, I was also finding new ends to light.”

From New York Times • Oct. 24, 2020

As Mr Kalanick himself admits, he used to think you had to burn the candle at both ends to be the real deal as head of a Silicon Valley start-up.

From BBC • Mar. 1, 2017

In a LinkedIn post last year, The Huffington Post president and editor-in-chief Arianna Huffington revealed that she’s often asked if young people pursuing their dreams should burn the candle at both ends?

From Time • Jul. 24, 2015

Girls had to be in bed by ten o'clock sharp to keep away the wrinkles, but now they're all agog to burn the candle at both ends.

From Red Rose and Tiger Lily or, In a Wider World by Meade, L. T.