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burns the candle at both ends

burns the candle at both ends is the third-person singular simple present indicative of burn the candle at both ends.

Meaning of burn the candle at both ends

Verb

burn the candle at both ends (third-person singular simple present burns the candle at both ends, present participle burning the candle at both ends, simple past and past participle burned the candle at both ends or burnt the candle at both ends)

  1. (idiomatic) To work hard night and day; to sleep late and wake up early; to overwork or overexert oneself.
    • Von Gerhard's face was unsmiling. “So,” he said, slowly. “You burn the candle at both ends. All day you write, is it not so? And at night you come home to write still more? Ach, Kindchen!—Na, we shall change all that. […]1911, Edna Ferber, chapter 8, in Dawn O'Hara, The Girl Who Laughed
  2. (dated, idiomatic) To waste or expend resources twice over; to be doubly profligate.
    • The dividends […] were divided from capital and not from profit—for, in truth, the concern never earned a penny in the sense in which the term profit is commonly employed. […] The pipe-making concern burned the candle at both ends, and burned it steadily; […]1866 May, “Large and Small Companies”, in The Bankers’ Magazine […], volume 26, pages 530–1

Questions about burns the candle at both ends

What is burns the candle at both ends the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Burns the candle at both ends is the third-person singular simple present indicative of burn the candle at both ends.

Words near burns the candle at both ends in the dictionary

  1. Burns stanza
  2. Burns stanzas
  3. Burns supper
  4. Burns suppers
  5. burns that bridge when one comes to it
  6. burns the candle at both ends
  7. burns the coal
  8. burns the midnight oil
  9. burns the roof
  10. burns the water
  11. burns through

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: burns the candle at both ends (page history and authors); burn the candle at both ends (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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