Etymology

From LatinCategory:English terms derived from Latin#EXHAUST exhaustus, past participle of exhaurīre (“to draw out, drink up, empty, exhaust”), from ex (“out”) + haurīre (“to draw (especially water), drain”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɪɡˈzɔːst/Category:English 2-syllable words#EXHAUSTCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#EXHAUST
• (General American, without the cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /ɪɡˈzɔst/Category:English 2-syllable words#EXHAUSTCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#EXHAUST

  • Audio:

    (file)

    Category:English terms with audio pronunciation#EXHAUST
    • (US, Canada, cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /ɪɡˈzɑst/, /ɪɡˈzɒst/Category:English 2-syllable words#EXHAUSTCategory:English 2-syllable words#EXHAUSTCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#EXHAUST
• Rhymes: -ɔːstCategory:Rhymes:English/ɔːst#EXHAUSTCategory:Rhymes:English/ɔːst/2 syllables#EXHAUST
• Hyphenation: ex‧haust

Verb

exhaust (third-person singular simple present exhausts, present participle exhausting, simple past and past participle exhausted)Category:English lemmas#EXHAUSTCategory:English verbs#EXHAUSTCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#EXHAUSTCategory:Pages with entries#EXHAUSTCategory:Pages with 2 entries#EXHAUST

1. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#EXHAUST) To draw or let out wholly; to drain completely.

   The water was exhausted out of the well.Category:English terms with usage examples#EXHAUST

   Moisture of the earth is exhausted by evaporation.Category:English terms with usage examples#EXHAUST

2. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#EXHAUST) To empty by drawing or letting out the contents.

   to exhaust a wellCategory:English terms with usage examples#EXHAUST

   to exhaust a treasuryCategory:English terms with usage examples#EXHAUST

   • 1922, Municipal Engineering and the Sanitary Record, page 68:

     It takes approximately 8 to 9 minutes to exhaust the tank of air and fill it with water.

     Category:English terms with quotations#EXHAUST

3. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#EXHAUST, literally, figuratively) To use up; to deplete, drain or expend wholly, or use until the supply comes to an end.

   My grandfather seemingly never exhausts his supply of bad jokes.Category:English terms with usage examples#EXHAUST

   to exhaust one's resourcesCategory:English terms with usage examples#EXHAUST

   to exhaust all possibilitiesCategory:English terms with usage examples#EXHAUST

   You're exhausting my patience.Category:English terms with usage examples#EXHAUST

   I exhausted my strength walking up the hill.Category:English terms with usage examples#EXHAUST

4. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#EXHAUST) To tire out; to wear out; to cause to be without any energy.

   The marathon exhausted me.Category:English terms with usage examples#EXHAUST

   • 1960 March, H. P. White, “The Hawkhurst branch of the Southern Region”, in Trains Illustrated, page 170:

     It is a branch that climbs for 11½ miles into the picturesque Wealden hills until, apparently exhausted by the effort, it terminates a mile short of the village of Hawkhurst.

     Category:English terms with quotations#EXHAUST

5. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#EXHAUST) To discuss thoroughly or completely.

   That subject has already been exhausted.Category:English terms with usage examples#EXHAUST

6. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#EXHAUST, chemistryCategory:en:Chemistry#EXHAUST) To subject to the action of various solvents in order to remove all soluble substances or extractives.

   to exhaust a drug successively with water, alcohol, and etherCategory:English terms with usage examples#EXHAUST

7. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#EXHAUST) To expel (as exhaust).
   • 2013 November 18, Michael Phiri, Bing Chen, Sustainability and Evidence-Based Design in the Healthcare Estate, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 141:

     Infections can be reduced further if outside air is exhausted after a single use, rather than re-circulated.

     Category:English terms with quotations#EXHAUST

   • 2023 May 8, Tom Scott, The world's cleanest railway‎:

     They [the doors between two clean rooms] get connected, and then high-pressure air blasts out anything in between: all the outside atmosphere is exhausted by fresh, clean air.

     Category:English terms with quotations#EXHAUST

8. (intransitiveCategory:English intransitive verbs#EXHAUST) To discharge or escape (as exhaust).
   • 1910, Walter Mason Camp, The Railway and Engineering Review, page 609:

     Steam from both high pressure cylinders exhausts through the respective receiver pipes into cylinders.

     Category:English terms with quotations#EXHAUST

   • 2022 July 13, Alan Darbyshire, Charles Gibson, Mechanical Engineering, Taylor & Francis, →ISBN, page 16:

     Figure 7.13e shows a 4/2 valve that normally has the pressure applied to output 4 while output 3 exhausts through the exhaust port. When activated, the pressure switches to output 3 while output 4 exhausts through the exhaust port.

     Category:English terms with quotations#EXHAUST

Noun

exhaust (plural exhausts)Category:English lemmas#EXHAUSTCategory:English nouns#EXHAUSTCategory:English countable nouns#EXHAUSTCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#EXHAUSTCategory:Pages with entries#EXHAUSTCategory:Pages with 2 entries#EXHAUST

1. A system consisting of the parts of an engine through which burned gases or steam are discharged; see also exhaust system.
2. The steam let out of a cylinder after it has done its work there.
   • 1960 October, P. Ransome-Wallis, “Modern motive power of the German Federal Railway: Part Two”, in Trains Illustrated, page 611:

     A lovely crisp exhaust: a feeling of almost unlimited power combined with complete freedom of running: and, to crown it all, a most melodious and wholly American chime whistle—these were my immediate impressions as we stormed rapidly out of Göttingen, intent on winning back some of the lost time.

     Category:English terms with quotations#EXHAUST

   • 1962 June, Cecil J. Allen, “Locomotive Running Past and Present”, in Modern Railways, page 399:

     Travellers over the London & North Western main line in bygone days will need no reminder of the pattering of cinders on the carriage roofs, the fountains of sparks from the chimneys at night and the distance from which the exhaust of approaching locomotives could be heard, due to the fierceness of their blast in such conditions.

     Category:English terms with quotations#EXHAUST

3. The dirty air let out of a room through a register or pipe provided for the purpose.
   • 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 1, in Internal Combustion‎:

     If successful, Edison and Ford—in 1914—would move society away from the […] hazards of gasoline cars: air and water pollution, noise and noxiousness, constant coughing and the undeniable rise in cancers caused by smoke exhaust particulates.

     Category:English terms with quotations#EXHAUST

4. An exhaust pipe, especially on a motor vehicle.
5. Exhaust gas.

Adjective

exhaust (not comparable)Category:English lemmas#EXHAUSTCategory:English adjectives#EXHAUSTCategory:English uncomparable adjectives#EXHAUSTCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#EXHAUSTCategory:Pages with entries#EXHAUSTCategory:Pages with 2 entries#EXHAUST

1. (obsoleteCategory:English terms with obsolete senses#EXHAUST) Exhausted; used up.

Further reading

• “exhaust”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “exhaust”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “exhaust”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Etymology

Borrowed from LatinCategory:Catalan terms borrowed from Latin#EXHAUSTCategory:Catalan terms derived from Latin#EXHAUST exhaustus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [əɡˈzawst]Category:Catalan terms with IPA pronunciation#EXHAUST
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [eɡˈzawst]Category:Catalan terms with IPA pronunciation#EXHAUST

Adjective

exhaust (feminine exhausta, masculine plural exhausts or exhaustos, feminine plural exhaustes)Category:Catalan lemmas#EXHAUSTCategory:Catalan adjectives#EXHAUSTCategory:Catalan entries with incorrect language header#EXHAUSTCategory:Pages with entries#EXHAUSTCategory:Pages with 2 entries#EXHAUST

1. out of (no longer in possession of)
2. exhausted

Further reading

• “exhaust”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “exhaust”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2026
• “exhaust” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• Alcover, Antoni Maria; Moll, Francesc de Borja (1963), “exhaust”, in Diccionari català-valencià-balear (in Catalan)