- tire
- tire vb Tire, weary, fatigue, exhaust, jade, fag, tucker can all mean to make or in some cases to become disinclined or unable to continue because of loss of strength or endurance.Tire is the general and ordinary word and usually implies the draining of one's strength or patience; it may suggest such causes as overexertion, long continuance at a task, boredom, or a sense of futility and usually it requires textual amplification to indicate the cause and the degree of the effect{
it tires me to death to read how many ways the warrior is like the moon, or the sun, or a rock, or a lion, or the ocean— Walpole
}{music that gentlier on the spirit lies, than tired eyelids upon tired eyes— Tennyson
}{spoke exclusively from the larynx, as if he were altogether too tired to put any diaphragm breath into his words— Salinger
}{we shall not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire— Sir Winston Churchill
}Weary as often suggests an incapacity for enduring more of the same thing or an unwillingness to continue one's effort or one's interest as a depletion of that strength or that interest{the others would never even raise their eyes when this happened, as men too well aware of the futility of their fellows' attempts and wearied with their useless repetition— Kipling
}{ah, I am worn out—I am wearied out— it is too much—I am but flesh and blood, and I must sleep— Millay
}{I have only one prayer—that I weary of you before you tire of me— Mailer
}{wearied of her husband's infidelities, and could not bear them any more— Rose Macaulay
}Fatigue is stronger than tire and implies great lassitude brought on by overstrain or undue effort. It usually implies an incapacity for further strain or effort without damaging effects{I rested ... in a shrubbery, being, in my enfeebled condition, too fatigued to push on— H. G. Wells
}{she flung herself upon a sofa, protesting . . . that she was fatigued to death— Burney
}Exhaust (see also DEPLETE) heightens fatigue's implications of drained strength or a worn-out condition of mind or of body{she is too exhausted to sleep
}{exhausted and addled by the frustration of their failures— Mailer
}Jade implies weariness or fatigue that makes one lose all freshness, spirit, animation, or interest and become dull and languid. The term seldom"carries as clear a suggestion of physical or mental overexertion as fatigue and often implies satiety even more clearly than weary; it is especially useful when the implication of overindulgence in something or the overworking of a particular sense or faculty is to be conveyed{to minds jaded with debauches of overemphasis it does contrive to give a thrill— Montague
}{to the jaded . . . eye it is all dead and common . . . flatness and disgust— James
}Fag implies work until one droops with weariness or fatigue{I worked ... at correcting manuscript, which fags me excessively— Scott
}{with a gasp for breath said, "Lord, what a run. I'm fagged to death"— Masefield
}Tucker closely approaches fatigue or exhaust in meaning but sometimes carries the additional suggestion of loss of breath{too tuckered to finish a job— Leavitt
}{seemed tuckered out from listening to long speeches— Dorothy Canfield
}
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
