to run into the ground
19
6.5
- phrasal verb
- Informal
:
arruinar
- Her poor management practices are running the company into the ground.
- run the company into the ground
- run the business into the ground
- run our country into the ground
And that's a toxic cycle because I ran myself into the ground literally.
- And that's a toxic cycle because I ran myself into the ground literally.
- And it's going down fast and he's crazy and he's running it into the ground.
- Would you rehire or work for someone who ran your business into the ground and who always does what's best for him or her, even when it hurts the company?
- So cynical leaders also, of course, run their organisations into the ground in a variety of ways, which is bad news not just for them but for their employees.
Examples
-
Regardless, the country will continue to run itself into the ground while the rest of the world watches.
Blog text (14) -
Your strategy is about to run us into the ground.
-
My wife is running herself into the ground trying to pay off the debt that I caused.
-
Without her, he would have run the store into the ground.
Fiction book (2001) -
Which is why the company is running itself into the ground.
Blog text (2) -
It's going to run you into the ground and that stress is killing you.
-
He's run the place into the ground.
-
They're running the place into the ground.
-
And that's a toxic cycle because I ran myself into the ground literally.
-
You're gone all the time, you're losing clients, you done emptied out your savings account for these people, you're running yourself into the ground.
Synonyms
15
3.2
To use up batteries, money or supplies until little remains
Antonyms
How Damaged
∞
1.0
∞
2.0
- Informal
19
6.5
26
2.3
470
3.3
Surface Forms
Morphology
There is a visible connection between the parts: 'run' (manage/use) plus 'into the ground' suggests driving something to an extreme state, so a learner can infer a sense of excessive activity leading to damage. However, the specific sense 'ruin or exhaust through overuse or mismanagement' is a metaphorical, conventionalized extension and not strictly predictable from the literal meanings, so a B1 learner would not reliably infer it without prior exposure.
Etymology
The idiom run into the ground may come from the image of a horse forced to run so hard it falls to the ground and is ruined. That's why it means 'to ruin or exhaust something by using it too much'.