Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

Date: 1500-1600
Language: Latin
Origin: exhaustus, past participle of exhaurire, from haurire 'to draw off liquid, drain'

exhaust

1 verb
     
ex‧haust1 [transitive]
1 to make someone feel extremely tired:
A full day's teaching exhausts me.
exhaust yourself
He'd exhausted himself carrying all the boxes upstairs.
2 to use all of something [= use up]:
We are in danger of exhausting the world's oil supply.
Having exhausted all other possibilities, I asked Jan to look after the baby.
3

exhaust a subject/topic etc

to talk about something so much that you have nothing more to say about it:
Once we'd exhausted the subject of Jill's wedding, I didn't know what to say.
Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Advanced Learner's Dictionary.

Dictionary pictures of the day
Do you know what each of these is called?
What is the word for picture 1? What is the word for picture 2? What is the word for picture 3? What is the word for picture 4?
Click on any of the pictures above to find out what it is called.

Explore our topic dictionary

Browse the dictionary