{
  "id": "running-on-empty.capacity",
  "term": "running on empty",
  "sense": "capacity",
  "pos": "noun",
  "status": "review",
  "level": 19,
  "domain": "everyday human experience",
  "style": "folk",
  "definition": "A state where energy capacity has drifted near the wall of exhaustion, and maintenance can no longer hold the thing inside its window of function.",
  "folk_gloss": "Feeling very tired and having no energy left to keep going.",
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "energy.capacity",
      "drift.aimless",
      "maintenance.upkeep",
      "exhaustion.capacity",
      "window.range",
      "wall.range-end"
    ],
    "interaction": "The phrase reports a slow, unmanaged drift in energy capacity, where ongoing maintenance is insufficient to counter depletion, bringing the system to the edge of functional collapse.",
    "novel_properties": [
      "emergence of failure despite continued effort",
      "invisible approach of functional end"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [],
  "relations": [],
  "used_by": [],
  "forms": [
    "run on empty",
    "running on empty"
  ],
  "closed": true,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "phrases:qwen/qwen3-235b-a22b-2507",
    "date": "2026-07-29",
    "confidence": 0.7,
    "sources": [
      "folk phrase — capacity and burnout"
    ]
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-running-on-empty.capacity"
}