run (oneself or something) into the ground
1. To work oneself to the point of illness or exhaustion. If you keep working 80-hour weeks, you'll run yourself into the ground sooner than later.
2. To overuse or poorly maintain something, resulting in its destruction or loss of functionality. If you would just remember to get your oil changed, you wouldn't keep running your cars into the ground.
3. To continue to discuss or address something—especially an issue or topic—that is no longer of any use or relevance. We've all moved on from that problem, so there's no use running it into the ground.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
run into the ground
1. Pursue a topic until it has been thoroughly discussed or exhausted, as in They've run the abortion issue into the ground.
2. Ruin or destroy, as in During her brief time as chief executive Marjorie just about ran the company into the ground . Both usages allude to pushing something so far that it is, in effect, buried. [Early 1800s]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
run somebody/something into the ˈground
use something so much that it breaks; make somebody work so hard that they are no longer able to work: In just one year, she managed to run her new car into the ground. ♢ These children are running me into the ground.Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017