Meaning & use
burning yourself
Last updated
Meanings
phraseidiom
the act of accidentally or intentionally causing a burn on your own body.
Grammar: Used as a noun phrase or after 'by': You can avoid burning yourself by using oven gloves.
Patterns
- avoid burning yourself
- risk burning yourself
- by burning yourself
Be careful with the hot pan; burning yourself is easy if you rush.
She kept burning herself on the curling iron until she learned to use a heat protectant.
He went to the clinic after burning himself with boiling water.
phraseidiomfigurative
working so hard that you become exhausted or harmed, often used figuratively.
Grammar: Often used with 'out': You're burning yourself out.
Patterns
- burning yourself out
- burning yourself up
You need a break; you're burning yourself out with all those extra shifts.
She was burning herself up trying to please everyone at work.
Common combinations
- burning yourself out
- If you keep working weekends, you'll end up burning yourself out.
- avoid burning yourself
- Use a potholder to avoid burning yourself.
- burning yourself on something
- I keep burning myself on that hot kettle.
Synonyms and how they differ
- scalding yourself
- Specifically means burning yourself with hot liquid or steam, not with fire or a hot object.
- self-harm
- A clinical term for deliberately hurting your own body; it is more serious and formal than 'burning yourself'.
Word family
Commonly confused: burning yourself or burning rubber?
burning yourself vs burning rubber
That phrase is about car tires, not about injuring your body.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'burning yourself' correctly in a literal sense?
Choose one answer.
'Burning yourself' is a reflexive phrase, so the subject and the reflexive pronoun must match: I burned myself. The other options mix subjects and pronouns incorrectly.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “burning yourself”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.