Maybe Alex was simply burned out on raising children after giving up so much for Katie - only to have her run away.
They're going to just throw the dummy out the pram - they're going to get burned out.
Two days later their burned-out station wagon was discovered on a lonely road, but the men were nowhere to be found.
Nova outbursts occur when a close companion star transfers fresh hydrogen fuel to a burned-out white dwarf.
The picturesqueness of the chimney stacks and tumble-down walls of the burned-out quarters of the town, stretching out and concealing one another, reminded him of the Rhine and the Colosseum.