▪ I. fatigue, n.
(fəˈtiːg)
[a. Fr. fatigue fem., f. fatiguer: see next. Cf. Sp. fatiga, It. fatica fem.]
1. a. Lassitude or weariness resulting from either bodily or mental exertion.
| 1719 De Foe Crusoe i. 323 It having been a Day of great Fatigue to me. 1776 Trial of Nundocomar 32/2 Imminent danger of expiring from fatigue. 1843 Prescott Mexico vii. iii. (1864) 434 Extremities of famine and fatigue. 1874 Morley Compromise (1886) 8 The mortal fatigue that seizes catholic societies after their fits of revolution. |
b. The condition of weakness in metals or other solid substances caused by cyclic variations in stress. Now
esp. as
metal fatigue.
| 1854 Braithwaite in Proc. Inst. Civil Eng. XIII. 463 Many..accidents on railways..are to be ascribed to that progressive action which may be termed the ‘fatigue of metals’. 1874 Knight Dicts. Mech. I. 827/1 To fatigue is ascribed the breaking of car-axles. 1885 Engineering 10 July 31 The law of the fatigue and refreshment of metals. 1905 [see fatigue test 4 below]. 1913 Sci. Amer. Suppl. 13 Dec. 372 (heading) A recently installed fatigue testing machine. 1937 Discovery July 194/2 The fatigue resistance of some metals. 1949 Jrnl. R. Aeronaut. Soc. LIII. 788/2 A ray of hope that non-ferrous alloys could be developed which would show similar features in lack of ‘fatigue-memory’ to the ferritic steels. 1955 Times 8 July 5/1 Her Royal Highness drove across the airfield to see a Bristol Britannia airliner undergoing metal fatigue tests in a water tank. 1966 McGraw-Hill Encycl. Sci. & Technol. II. 284/2 The only examples of a fatigue fracture in bone are those seen usually in military training,..in which a soldier not previously used to repetitive exercise is forced to march 30 or 40 miles in a single day. |
c. Physiol. A condition of muscles, organs, or cells characterized by a temporary reduction in power or sensitivity following a period of prolonged activity or stimulation.
| 1872 J. H. Bennett Text-bk. Physiol. ii. 83 (heading) Muscular fatigue. 1876 Kirkes' Hand-bk. Physiol. (ed. 9) xix. 586 Fatigue of muscle.—A muscle becomes rapidly exhausted from repeated stimulation. 1888 M. Foster Text Bk. Physiol. (ed. 5) I. 149 The sense of fatigue of which, after prolonged or unusual exertion, we are conscious in our own bodies..cannot be taken as an adequate measure of the actual fatigue of the muscles. 1891 A. D. Waller Introd. Human Physiol. xii. 448 Negative after-images are the most obvious sign of retinal—or properly speaking—of retino-cerebral fatigue. 1932 S. Duke-Elder Text-bk. Ophthalmol. I. xxiv. 969 The lowered visual acuity which is readily demonstrable on continued observation..is due to fatigue in mental or even general bodily processes... Of retinal fatigue there seems to be no evidence. 1949 E. G. Wever Theory of Hearing xii. 322 The specificity of the fatigue effect..is studied by exposing the ear to one tone and then testing with various other tones above and below. 1966 Lancet 12 Mar. 585/2 True muscular fatigue and what, for want of a better term, must be called tiredness are plainly different. |
† d. Mech. fatigue of elasticity: a decrease in the elasticity of a material after a long period or repeated applications of stress, followed by a gradual recovery after the stress is removed; also
elastic fatigue.
Obs.| 1877 W. Thomson in Encycl. Brit. VII. 802/1 Experimental exercises..brought to light some very remarkable and interesting results,..showing also a very remarkable fatigue of elasticity, according to which a wire which had been kept vibrating for several hours or days through a certain range came to rest much quicker when left to itself than when set in vibration after it had been at rest for several days and then immediately left to itself. 1895 Proc. R. Soc. LXVIII. 136 In every case, overstrain has produced a like fatigue of elasticity, and elastic recovery has followed during an interval of some days or weeks of rest. 1899 Nature 6 July 239/2 Experiments on an iron wire..showed distinct fatigue of elasticity. 1899 W. Watson Text-bk. Physics xix. 205 This phenomenon is referred to as elastic fatigue. 1920 A. E. H. Love Treat. Math. Theory Elasticity (ed. 3) iv. 117 An analogous property of bodies is that to which Lord Kelvin has called attention under the name ‘fatigue of elasticity’. 1922 Proc. Physical Soc. XXXV. 165 In his own experience of electrometers elastic fatigue appeared to be due mainly to the attachment at the two ends of the suspension wire. |
e. The reduction of the efficiency of an (
esp. luminescent) material during use or exposure.
| 1904 Philos. Trans. R. Soc. A. CII. 443 At pressures below, say, a tenth of an atmosphere, zinc showed little or no signs of fatigue when illuminated by ultra-violet light. 1949 G. F. J. Garlick Luminescent Materials vii. 187 The saturation of the screen material by electrons at low voltages..results in a fatigue of the material. |
2. That which causes weariness;
† fatiguing labour, ‘trouble’ (
obs.); a fatiguing duty or performance, labour, toil.
| 1669 Temple Let. to Pr. Tuscany Wks. 1731 II. 196 The glorious Fatigues which have hitherto been the Diversion of your Highness. 1691 Wood Ath. Oxon. II. 644 When the Treaty for the delivery of it [Oxon] up for the use of the Parliament was in agitation, he [Rushworth] was often posting to London upon intermessages and fatigues. 1695 Woodward Nat. Hist. Earth i. (1723) 37 A Question..which hath..given no small Fatigue to Learned Men. 1712 W. Rogers Voy. 364 The Governour's Deputy..had the Fatigue to get our Provisions together. 1780 Burke Corr. (1844) II. 381 The fatigues of the election are over. 1844 H. H. Wilson Brit. India II. 305 The men were much distressed by..the fatigues of their previous march. 1866 Geo. Eliot F. Holt (1868) 12 Sight had become one of the day's fatigues. |
3. a. The extra-professional duties of a soldier, sometimes allotted to him as punishment for misdemeanour; an instance of this.
| 1776 A. Ward in Sparks Corr. Amer. Rev. (1853) I. 191, I..have ordered all the men, not on actual duty, to turn out upon fatigue every day. 1844 Regul. & Ord. Army 275 The levelling of ground in the vicinity of the Camp or Barracks, and making communications between different parts of them, are duties of fatigue. 1881 Through the Ranks to a Commission 57 For the two weeks that I was a private I took my turn at the daily fatigues. |
b. Short for
fatigue party, and in
pl. for
fatigue-dress.
| 1836 J. Hildreth Dragoon Campaigns Rocky Mts. i. vii. 51 We have not yet received our uniforms..but even in our ‘fatigues’, we make an imposing appearance when mounted. 1876 Voyle & Stevenson Milit. Dict. 135/2 Fatigue..a party of soldiers told off for any other duty than a dress parade necessitates. 1892 W. G. Browne in 19th Cent. Nov. 850 Change into stable fatigues. 1966 D. F. Galouye Lost Perception viii. 85 Clad in ill-fitting and occasionally torn fatigues, the soldiers were a vivid contrast to the flawlessly uniformed Guardsmen. 1967 Boston (Mass.) Herald 5 Apr. 59/3 The generals..in their ‘pressed fatigues and shining stars’. 1970 Daily Tel. 6 Oct. 4/4 A Palestinian major, dressed in jungle green fatigues. |
4. attrib. and
Comb., as
fatigue-blouse,
fatigue-cap,
fatigue frock,
fatigue-jacket,
fatigue trousers,
fatigue-uniform (
= fatigue-dress);
fatigue-man;
fatigue-call, the call to fatigue-duty;
fatigue-dress, the dress worn by a soldier on fatigue-duty; also
transf.;
fatigue-duty = fatigue n. 3;
fatigue limit, the (presumed) value of the fatigue strength for an infinite number of cycles of stress; also called
endurance limit;
fatigue-party, a party of soldiers on fatigue-duty;
fatigue products,
stuff,
substances [
tr. G.
ermüdender Stoff,
ermüdende Substanz (J. Ranke
Tetanus (1865) xiv. 329, xviii. 450)], an accumulation of toxic material formerly held to result from excessive muscular activity and to be the cause of fatigue;
fatigue range, the maximum variation in stress that a material can be subjected to for a large or infinite number of cycles of stress without its failing from fatigue;
fatigue strength, half the value of the fatigue range of a material for a given (large) number of cycles of stress,
esp. when the mean stress is zero; also called
endurance strength;
fatigue test, a test carried out on a material or part to determine its behaviour under cyclic variations of stress and
esp. its fatigue strength; also as
v.; so
fatigue testing vbl. n.;
fatigue testing machine, a machine for performing fatigue tests;
fatigue-work = fatigue n. 3.
| 1890 Century Mag. Aug. 617/2 A thin *fatigue blouse. |
| 1861 R. A. Wise Let. 9 Jan. in Wm. & Mary Coll. Q. 2nd Ser. XVIII. 197 Their uniform is to be home spun pantaloons and a red flannel shirt and a *fatigue cap. 1914 E. A. Powell Fighting in Flanders vi. 139 Small, round, visorless fatigue-caps. |
| 1833 Marryat P. Simple xvi, A soldier in his *fatigue dress. 1847 Emerson Repr. Men, Goethe Wks. (Bohn) I. 387 He had put off a gay uniform for a fatigue dress. 1879 Escott England II. 213 The black gown is the fatigue dress of judges. |
| 1873 Burton Hist. Scot. I. ii. 72 The soldier never slept till he had done his *fatigue-duty. |
| 1803 M. Lewis Jrnl. (1905) VIII. 233, 20 *Fatigue Frocks or hunting shirts. 1847 in H. Howe Hist. Coll. Ohio 490 It was at night..and they [sc. the soldiers] were dressed in fatigue frocks. |
| 1852 Lever Daltons II. iv. 35 A creature that..carries a bread bag over its shoulder through the streets in a *fatigue jacket. |
| 1911 Proc. Inst. Mech. Engin. Oct. 884 As far as he could ascertain, there was no relationship between *fatigue limits and the ordinary elastic limits. 1959 Chambers's Encycl. IX. 326/2 When a metal is subjected to many millions of cycles of alternating or vibrating stress, below the elastic limit, but above the so-called ‘fatigue’ limit, it eventually breaks by ‘fatigue’. |
| 1774 J. Andrews Let. 28 Sept. (1886) 57 A number of *fatigue men with hand barrows. 1871 L. W. M. Lockhart Fair to See III. xxxi. 49 Laissez-aller hospital orderlies and sluggish ‘fatigue⁓men’. 1957 M. K. Joseph I'll soldier no More (1958) xiii. 255 Tino and a couple of fatigue-men have sweated in the cookhouse. |
| 1840 De Quincey Casuist. Rom. Meals Wks. 1863 III. 271 A *fatigue party of dustmen sent upon secret service. 1844 Regul. & Ord. Army 2 A..Fatigue-Party, is not entitled to exemption from a Tour of Duty. 1860 Russell Diary India II. xvi. 304 The men of a fatigue party..were emptying out shot. |
| 1909 Westm. Gaz. 8 June 9/2 To eliminate from the muscles what pathologists know as ‘*fatigue products’. 1935 Winton & Bayliss Human Physiol. (ed. 2) i. 17 It was at one time supposed that a specific physiological mechanism was at the root of the state of fatigue, which was attributed to the action of products of activity, ‘fatigue products’, circulating in the blood. |
| 1922 Glazebrook Dict. Appl. Physics I. 179/2 A determination of the *fatigue range occupied a very long time. 1954 L. E. Benson in W. R. Osgood Residual Stresses in Metals 81 With mild steel..the upper limit of the fatigue range of stress (with zero mean stress) is approximately equal to the yield point. |
| 1912 Min. Proc. Inst. Civil Engin. CLXXXVIII. i. 10 There only remained the investigation of the effects of the high speed on the *fatigue strength of the specimens. 1959 Crandall & Dahl Introd. Mech. Solids v. 221 The fatigue strength of 2024–T4 aluminium alloy, when tested as unnotched bars, is about 30,000 psi for 106 cycles and 24,000 psi for 107 cycles. 1971 Engineering Apr. 38/1 These bronzes..have a very good fatigue strength. |
| 1885 W. Stirling tr. Landois' Text-bk. Human Physiol. II. x. 667 The cause of fatigue is probably the accumulation of decomposition products, ‘*fatigue stuffs’ in the muscular tissue. |
| 1905 Jrnl. Iron & Steel Inst. LXVII. 488 It is not easy to definitely compare the tensile and *fatigue tests in this case. 1955 Fatigue test [see 1 b]. |
| 1959 Sines & Waisman Metal Fatigue vii. 167 Any part design which differs greatly from standard practice should be carefully *fatigue-tested before it is adopted for service. |
| 1905 Jrnl. Iron & Steel Inst. LXVII. 486 The *fatigue testing-machines were of Wöhler's cantilever type. 1908 Ibid. LXXVI. 70 The chief object of fatigue-testing was to discover the existence or non-existence of a relation between the elastic properties of a material and its resistance to fatigue. |
| 1813 Niles' Weekly Reg. III. 295/2 *Fatigue trowsers. |
| 1890 Illust. Lond. News Christmas No. 2/1 A grey *fatigue-uniform. |
| 1846 Aide Mémoire Mil. Sci. I. 521 Fascine pickets are..usually considered *fatigue-work. 1889 Wolseley in Times 15 Feb. 12/3 Fatigue work, such as carrying coals. |
▸ With prefixed noun.
a. Widespread apathy, boredom, or disenchantment among a specified category of people.
Recorded earliest in
donor fatigue n. at
donor n. Additions
| 1948 N.Y. Times 25 June 25/1 Donor fatigue is a natural result of inflation. 1951 Amer. Polit. Sci. Rev. 45 408 Voter fatigue has not operated as might be expected. The greatest popular participation..has taken place in those instances when the greatest number of proposals have appeared on the ballot. 1961 F. W. Houn To change Nation vi. 233 Such monotony may already have produced audience fatigue. 2004 Statesman (India) (Nexis) 8 Aug. The shows have to be exciting to sustain interest over a long period and heed viewer fatigue, considering the plethora of similar clones littering the telewaves. |
b. Apathy, boredom, or disenchantment with regard to a specified issue or phenomenon, typically resulting from excessive exposure to it.
Cf. compassion fatigue n. at
compassion n. Additions,
information fatigue n.| 1961 Daily Herald (Chicago, Illinois) 20 Apr. 1/5 The record turnout belied theories that the citizenry would suffer from election fatigue and neglect the polls after township and school elections. 1964 Internat. Devel. Assoc. Act Amendment (U.S. House Comm. on Banking & Currency) 46 We are suffering from foreign-aid fatigue and frustration and anything that is tagged ‘Foreign aid’..probably would not come out without serious amendments. 1991 Sun (Baltimore) 18 Aug. (Our Maryland section) 15/1 With..mall-fatigue making shoppers yearn for a change, this old-fashioned form of shopping may be coming back into vogue. 1998 Sunday Tel. 25 Jan. 1/4 He would prefer a top prize in the range of {pstlg}7 million. Enormous sums could lead to ‘jackpot fatigue’ and an eventual decline in sales. 2000 Independent 25 Apr. ii. 4/6, I am concerned that at present ‘Africa fatigue’ is beginning to affect us all. If it is not Mozambique and the floods, then it is Sudan and the forgotten war. |
▪ II. fatigue, v. (
fəˈtiːg)
[ad. F. fatiguer (= Pr., Sp. fatigar, It. faticare), ad. L. fatīgāre, f. stem *fati- (in ad-fatim enough), prob. meaning ‘yawning’; cf. fatiscent.] 1. trans. a. ‘To tire, weary; to harass with toil; to exhaust with labour’ (J.).
| 1693 Lond. Gaz. No. 2911/3 Many false Allarms to harass and fatigue their Men. 1725 De Foe Voy. round World (1840) 345 Five of them..extremely fatigued themselves in pursuing them [cattle]. 1784 Cowper Task iv. 706 Heroes and their feats Fatigued me. 1848 Lytton Harold vi. vii, Thou fatiguest thyself in vain. 1863 F. A. Kemble Resid. in Georgia 34 My morning's work had fatigued me. |
b. To induce a condition of fatigue in (a muscle, organ, etc.): see
fatigue n. 1 c.
| 1872 J. H. Bennett Text-bk. Physiol. ii. 83 The muscles of a strong man are not so easily fatigued as those of a weak one. 1885 W. Stirling tr. Landois' Text-bk. Human Physiol. II. x. 668 Loads may be suspended to perfectly passive muscles without fatiguing them. 1896 W. P. Lombard in W. H. Howell Amer. Text-bk. Physiol. ii. 97 It is doubtful whether nerves are fatigued by the process of conduction. 1954 Wever & Lawrence Physiol. Acoustics ix. 157 The ear is strongly fatigued with a tone of a certain frequency..and then is stimulated with two primary tones of adjacent frequencies. |
2. a. To weaken by straining; to strain (a mast).
| 1794 Rigging & Seamanship II. 273 Augmenting the number of sails..at the risque of fatiguing the masts. 1869 E. J. Reed Shipbuild. v. 83 To render the angle-iron frames less fatigued. |
b. trans. To weaken by the application of a periodically varying stress; to induce fatigue in (
fatigue n. 1 b, d).
| 1899 J. A. Ewing Strength of Materials iii. 56 A piece which has been fatigued by many variations of stress. 1905 Jrnl. Iron & Steel Inst. LXVII. 491 A broad face of a specimen of oblong section is polished, and the specimen is then fatigued. 1925 Timoshenko & Lessels Appl. Elasticity xvi. 464 The material, after being fatigued, showed an increase in angular strain when frequency of alternation was decreased. 1962 A. J. Kennedy Processes Creep & Fatigue in Metals v. 298 The fracture hardness was lower for copper specimens fatigued at 20 × 103 p.s.i. than for those fatigued at 16 × 103 p.s.i. |
† 3. intr. To undertake fatigue.
| 1697 Collier Ess. Mor. Subj. ii. (1709) 163 Age is not vigorous enough for Business and Fatiguing. |