what is the meaning of "train to exhaustion"?
We had trained to exhaustion every day for many years to be ready for game.
Does "train for" equal to "train to"?
and here after "to" should we have verb or noun? to exhaust or to exhaustion?
thank you
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3Train means excercise. To exhaustion means (up) to the point that we felt very very tired. To train for exhaustion would mean that exhaustion is the goal of your train, not just the result. There are plenty of verbs in the sentence, no need for more.– oerkelensCommented Apr 2, 2015 at 13:22
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1My subway ride to work?– Jim ReynoldsCommented Apr 2, 2015 at 13:47
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It's also an idiom meaning "train really really hard, with no concern for physical comfort."– DJMcMayhemCommented Apr 2, 2015 at 14:39
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1 Answer
Here "train" is the act of learning and practicing. The word "to" is used to mean "until". Furthermore, "exhaustion" is a stated of being (a noun).
Or:
We had practiced [some skill] until we became exhausted every day for many years to be ready for game.
This means that on each day, for many years, a group of people trained so much that they were exhausted. So each night for a year they would have been very tired.
However:
We had trained to exhaust every day for many years to be ready for game.
Exhaust is a verb, "to exhaust" is the infinitive form. This sentence means that the action they are training to perform is "to exhaust" - essentially they are learning how to make other people exhausted.
We had trained for exhaustion every day for many years to be ready for game.
Using for instead of to also changes the meaning, "to" means that exhaustion is the result of the training, "for" means that exhaustion is the goal of the reason for the training. With "to" the sentence implies that they are training for the game.
Essentially this means that the group is learning how to handle being exhausted (increasing their stamina) so that they will perform better in the game. While the original version means that because they were training for the game, they became exhausted.
