fume date
fume date noun: the date on which a company (especially a startup) runs out of money or is expected to run out of money.
Noun
fume date (plural fume dates)
- The date on which a company (especially a startup) runs out of money or is expected to run out of money.
- Acknowledging that risk and discussing the window of foresight that will be available before problems become serious and even honestly discussing the "fume date" is often all the reassurance a prospective employee needs.1999, Howard H. Stevenson, New Business Ventures and the Entrepreneur, Irwin/McGraw/Hill, published 1999, →ISBN, page 168
- Was it a success? The WebTaggers guys say they will not know until the wire transfer date, Aug. 15, when WebTaggers anticipates that funds from investors will have traded hands.
After that? Jan. 1, 2001, the "fume date," which no one really wants to think about -- the point at which, if no venture...2000 June 7, Courtney Barry, “10 Months, 10 Minutes, $10 Million”, in The New York Times
Forms of fume date
| plural | fume dates |
|---|
Origin of fume date
From fume + date, from the phrase run on fumes.
Questions about fume date
- What does fume date mean?
- Fume date means the date on which a company (especially a startup) runs out of money or is expected to run out of money.
- What part of speech is fume date?
- Fume date is a noun.
- What is the plural of fume date?
- The plural of fume date is fume dates.
Words near fume date in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: fume date (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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Cite this entry: “fume date.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fume_date. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.