burnout

Etymology

From the verb phrase burn out.

noun

  1. (psychology) The experience of long-term exhaustion and diminished interest, especially in one's career.
  2. (US, slang) A marijuana addict; one whose brains have been burned out.
    Then in his late 30s, he [Neal Cassady] was already a visibly ravaged shadow of Kerouac’s heroically defiant rebel and well on his way to becoming the kind of babbling burnout you don’t want to sit next to on any bus trip, magical or not. 2011-08-04, Stephen Holden, “Stoned Archive: Wild Ride Of the Merry Pranksters”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
  3. (aerospace) The shutoff of a rocket motor following the exhaustion of its fuel, or having been irreversibly throttled after the application of a planned delta-v.
  4. The failure of an electrical device, usually through overheating due to the application of excessive power.
  5. (automotive) Use of the throttle to spin the wheels of a vehicle being held stationary, causing the spinning tires to produce smoke and burn rubber.

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