What does fatigate mean?
Fatigate is a formal, now relatively uncommon verb meaning to make someone or something extremely tired, especially through sustained physical or mental effort. In its older intransitive use, it can also mean to grow weary or exhausted. The word has a distinctly literary or technical tone: a narrator might say that difficult conditions fatigued the workers, while a modern speaker is more likely to choose tire, exhaust, or wear out. Its uncommonness should not be confused with ambiguity; fatigate has a clear meaning and a long history in English. It is useful chiefly for formal writing, historical texts, or deliberately elevated prose. Fatigue, the familiar modern noun, comes from the same Latin source, and the related fatigation preserves an even more formal vocabulary of weariness.
verbTo make a person, animal, or other entity very tired or exhausted, especially through prolonged effort. In older or literary usage, it can also mean to become weary or exhausted.
- To cause a person, animal, or other entity to become very tired or exhausted, especially through sustained effort.
- To grow tired or exhausted, especially through sustained effort.
"The long march fatigued the soldiers."
"The long march fatigued the soldiers."
"The expedition fatigued in the intense summer heat."
It sounds as though it should make you fat; in fact, it means to make you weary.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does fatigate come from?
Fatigate entered English from Latin in the early modern period, borrowing the Latin verb fatigare, meaning “to tire” or “to make weary.” English usage has included both the transitive sense of causing exhaustion and the intransitive sense of becoming weary, although the latter is now largely literary. The word belongs to the same Latin family as fatigue, which passed through French, and fatigation.
Related word forms
How fatigate is actually used
Formal, literary, and relatively uncommon in contemporary English. It is used chiefly as a transitive verb, while the intransitive sense is now largely literary or archaic.
Easily confused with fatigate
Fatigate means to cause exhaustion or, in older usage, to become exhausted; fatigue is now commonly a noun for weariness and is also used as a verb meaning to grow tired.