Also, burn oneself out. Make or become tired of, particularly of one’s job or education. This figurative term alludes to a fire lacking fuel and therefore going out. It dates from the early 1800s. For example, “David was burned out; the law firm required 80 billing hours per week.” The noun burnout signifies the condition of being burned out. Graham Greene’s 1960 novel, A Burnt-Out Case, describes a protagonist afflicted with burnout.