Question
Updated on
8 Feb 2020
- English (US)
-
Simplified Chinese (China)
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English (UK)
Question about English (UK)
Hi, what do "wear out" and "wear down" mean? Which one means "to be tired" and which one stands for "to be in a bad condition due to frequent use"? Or can they both have the two meanings depending on the context?
Hi, what do "wear out" and "wear down" mean? Which one means "to be tired" and which one stands for "to be in a bad condition due to frequent use"? Or can they both have the two meanings depending on the context?
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- English (UK)
- Malay Near fluent
you'd have to put both of those in the past tense to say "to be tired" and "to be in a bad condition due to frequent use"
so worn out = to be tired
worn out and wear down = to be in a bad condition due to frequent use
wear out/wear down would mean "to tire someone/yourself" or "to put something in a bad condition due to frequent use"
example:
"You have to wear down the machine"
"This exercise will wear out the students"
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- English (UK)
- English (US)
@cupcakes123 Wear out means to be in bad condition due to overuse.
Wear down means to be tired, to be weary.
Do you have an example of the two meanings in context?
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- English (US)
@ladybug Thanks, so it would be "All those meeting really wear me down, I always have to take a nap at the end of the day" and "you're jeans are badly worn out, you should get a new pair"?
- English (US)
- English (UK)
- English (US)
@cupcakes123 Correct. All those meetings wear me down. However, when talking about people (not machines), we do also say “wear me out” to mean very tired and weary.
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