“What did you do on New Year’s Eve? Did you have fun?”
“Oh, yes! I had a great deal of fun! My friends and I danced till 4:00 in the morning. And as you can imagine, I was dead beat after that. I found it….”
“….you were beat? Who beat you? And why?”
“Nobody beat me! All that dancing had me beat. You see, when you say that you’re beat, it implies that you are extremely tired. It’s one of the meanings of the word ‘beat’.”
“I see. It’s an informal expression, I suppose?”
“That’s right! It’s not used in formal contexts. Here’s an example. The college students were dead beat after the long trek.”
“Vyomekesh looked dead beat after doing his karate exercises.”
“That’s a good example. Agarkar looked beat after bowling his tenth over.”
“I don’t really agree with you. He doesn’t usually look beat after bowling ten overs. It’s just that he always looks as if he wants to sit down and cry.”
“That’s true. He always looks sad, doesn’t he?”
“Most of our cricketeers do. And the way they are playing, they are making everyone in the country sad, too. Tell me, is there another word which means ‘tired’? An informal word, I mean.”
“Sure, there is. ‘Bushed’ is another word used in informal contexts to mean ‘tired’. After playing the third set, Ramdas was bushed.”
“When Mala asked me if I was interested in going to the movies, I told her I was too bushed to go. How does that sound?”
“Sounds good.” Let me give….”
“….is it O.K. to say ‘dead bushed’? After all, we do say ‘dead beat’?”
“I have heard people say ‘rather bushed’, ‘too bushed’, and ‘terribly bushed’. But I haven’t heard them say ‘dead bushed’.”
“I see.”
“Mythreye was too bushed to take another step.”
“Hey, doesn’t the word ‘stressed out’ mean the same thing as ‘bushed’?”
“Not really. You see, ….”
“….what do you mean? Doesn’t ‘stressed out’ mean tired too?”
“Well, yes. But there is a difference between being ‘stressed out’ and being ‘bushed’. You see, when you say you are ‘bushed’ or ‘beat’, what you are implying is that you are physically exhausted.”
“I see. And when you say that you are ‘stressed ou’’ what you are implying is it means that you are mentally exhausted. Am I right?”
“I guess you could say that. ‘Stressed out’ is more mental than physical. For example, studying for the GRE has really stressed out Sukesh.”
“Talking to my uncle for five minutes stresses me out.”
“I am sure my nephews say the same thing.”
“When I was young, sitting in maths class used to stress me out.”
“I still have nightmares thinking about my maths class.”
“My friend Suresh gets asthma thinking about maths.”
“Gets what?”
“A..s..t..h..m..a. Asthma!”
“The ‘th’ in the word ‘asthma’ is not pronounced.”
“It isn’t? But I hear everyone saying….”
“….the ‘as’ in the first syllable is like the word ‘ass’. The final ‘a’ is like the ‘a’ in ‘china’, ‘about’, and ‘amount’.”
“The ‘th’ is not pronounced at all and the stress is on the first syllable. Correct?”
“Excellent. Some people pronounce the ‘s’ in the first syllable like the ‘z’ in ‘zip’, ‘zest’, and ‘zoo’.”
“Ravi gets frequent attacks of asthma in winter.”
“Frequent attacks? Poor chap. That must leave him pooped.”
“Leave him what?”
“P..o..o..p..e..d. The ‘oo’ is pronounced like the ‘oo’ in ‘pool’, ‘cool’ and ‘fool’.”
“What does the word ‘pooped’ mean? Does it mean the same thing as ‘bushed’?”
“I guess you could say that. It means tired too. And like the word ‘bushed’, it is also used in informal contexts. After two hours in the hot sun, the old man felt pooped.”
“I did a bit of weeding in our garden the other day. After a little while, I felt absolutely pooped.”
“I was dead beat after watering the garden.”
“You felt bushed after watering the garden? You are getting old.”
“It must be your company. You know how much you stress me out.”
“I am worse than your uncle, eh?”
Published in The Hindu on January 4, 2000
Published – March 24, 2026 08:30 am IST
