fatigue

Etymology

From French fatigue, from fatiguer, from Latin fatīgāre (“to weary, tire, vex, harass”).

noun

1. A weariness caused by exertion; exhaustion.
   My husband stayed for some days with the magistrate at Cardwell, recruiting his health and recovering from his fatigues, for the passage between Cape York and Cardwell had proved the most tedious and anxious part of the voyage. 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 181
   Alan Pardew finished by far the most frustrated man at the Emirates, blaming fatigue for the fact that Arsenal were able to kill his team off in the dying minutes. December 29, 2012, Paul Doyle, “Arsenal's Theo Walcott hits hat-trick in thrilling victory over Newcastle”, in The Guardian
2. (often in the plural) A menial task or tasks, especially in the military.
3. (engineering) Weakening and eventual failure of material, typically by cracking leading to complete separation, caused by repeated application of mechanical stress to the material.
   Mechanical failures due to fatigue have been the subject of engineering efforts for more than 150 years. 2013, N. Dowling, Mechanical Behaviour of Materials, page 399
4. (US) Attributive form of fatigues (“military clothing worn when doing menial tasks”).
   He was slouched in the chair behind the duty officer’s desk, cigarette dangling from his lips, hands thrust deep into his fatigue pockets, making a display of his disrespect. The acting clerk, cowering behind his own desk, was either afraid to insist he assume a more military posture, or else didn’t care. 1975, John Crowther, Firebase, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, page 107
   He reluctantly took the map from his camouflage fatigue pocket. 1998, William T. Craig, Team Sergeant: A Special Forces NCO at Lang Vei and Beyond, New York, N.Y.: Ivy Books, page 27
   Chino took a laminated map out of one of his fatigue pockets and gave it to Harper. 2013, Gavin G. Smith, Crysis: Escalation, London: Gollancz, page 186
   Spencer came with all the soft-skill attributes of a desk officer. Double chin, bulging belly testing the tensile strength of the lower two buttons of his fatigue top, and wired-rimmed glasses that sat atop a pointed nose with mismatched nostrils. 2014, Dalton Fury, Full Assault Mode, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, page 139

verb

1. (transitive) To tire or make weary by physical or mental exertion.
2. (transitive, cooking) To wilt a salad by dressing or tossing it.
   The handsome, silver-haired proprietor was absorbed in fatiguing a salad for a family party. 1927, Dorothy L. Sayers, chapter 1, in Unnatural Death
3. (intransitive) To lose so much strength or energy that one becomes tired, weary, feeble or exhausted.
4. (intransitive, engineering, of a material specimen) To undergo the process of fatigue; to fail as a result of fatigue.
5. (transitive, engineering) To cause to undergo the process of fatigue.
   The repeated pressurization cycles fatigued the airplane's metal skin until it eventually broke up in flight.