Etymology From Middle English ded, deed, from Old English dēad, from Proto-West Germanic *daud, from Proto-Germanic *daudaz. Compare West Frisian dead, dea, Dutch dood, German tot, Danish and Norwegian Bokmål død, Norwegian Nynorsk daud, Swedish död.
Usually No longer living; deceased. (Also used as a noun.)
All of my grandparents are dead.
Have respect for the dead.
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The villagers are mourning their dead.
The dead are always with us, in our hearts.
Lily was pronounced dead at the scene.
A storekeeper downtown was shot dead last evening.
2
Usually Devoid of living things; barren.
a dead planet
Behold the substance from which all things draw their energy, the bright Spirit of the Globe, without which it cannot live, but must grow cold and dead as the dead moon.1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
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Was it possible to exist upon a dead world?1913, Arthur Conan Doyle, “(please specify the page)”, in The Poison Belt […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:
3
Excessive, Usually Figuratively, not alive; lacking life.
When a man's verses cannot be understood, nor a man's good wit seconded with the forward child, understanding, it strikes a man more dead than a great reckoning in a little room.1600, William Shakespeare, As You Like It, act III, scene 3:
4
Usually Utterly exhausted.
“Finished the last one at three this morning, apart from bits and bobs and poppers. Quite frankly, I'm dead!”1970, Richard Carpenter, Catweazle, Harmondsworth: Puffin Books, page 124:
5
Usually, Of another person So hated or offensive as to be absolutely shunned, ignored, or ostracized.
He is dead to me.
I didn't have it in myself to go with grace And you're the hero flying around, saving face And if I'm dead to you, why are you at the wake?2020 July 24, Taylor Swift, “My Tears Ricochet”, in Folklore:
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Usually Doomed; marked for death; as good as dead.
Literal or hyperbolic
"You come back here this instant! Oh, you're dead, mister!"
You're dead. A million and one thoughts pounded her at once. But one overpowered all the others. This time you're dead.2009, Noel Hynd, Midnight in Madrid:
7
Usually Without emotion; impassive.
She stood with dead face and limp arms, unresponsive to my plea.
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Usually Stationary; static; immobile or immovable.
the dead load on the floor
a dead lift
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Usually Without interest to one of the senses; dull; flat.
dead air
a dead glass of soda.
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He stopped, took a swig of the dead champagne. It was like 7-Up.1969 March 31, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Slaughterhouse-Five […] (A Seymour Lawrence Book), New York, N.Y.: Delacorte Press, →OCLC, page 65:
10
Usually Unproductive; fallow.
dead time
dead fields
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The auditorium opens and the seats fill. As ever, there's a brief, grey dead time while Wheeler waits for all the machinery of the performance to spin up. The anxious feeling is stronger than usual today. It grips him, an uncharacteristic urge to run away. Sure, he thinks. I could just junk my career, right now. Pack it in and make for the stage door. Maybe the taxi'll still be there.2019 April 10, qntm, “CASE HATE RED”, in There Is No Antimemetics Division, →ISBN, page 136:
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Usually Past, bygone, vanished.
Then shall the Times that were be Times no more; and it may be that the old, dead days shall return from beyond the Rim, and we who have wept for them shall see those days again, as one who, returning from long travel to his home, comes suddenly on dear, remembered things.1905, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], The Gods of Pegāna, London: [Charles] Elkin Mathews, […], →OCLC, page 40:
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Usually, Of a place Lacking usual activity; unexpectedly quiet or empty of people.
For a Friday night, it's really dead in this restaurant.
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Usually, Of a machine Completely inactive; currently without power; without a signal; not live.
Device; or electrical circuit; device; or electrical circuit
OK, the circuit's dead. Go ahead and cut the wire.
Now that the motor's dead you can reach in and extract the spark plugs.
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The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.1984, William Gibson, chapter 1, in Neuromancer (Sprawl; book 1), New York, N.Y.: Ace Books, →ISBN, page 3:
Joker: Everything cuts out after that. No comm traffic at all. Just goes dead. There's nothing.2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Normandy SR-1:
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Usually, Of a battery Unable to emit power, being discharged (flat) or faulty.
15
Usually Broken or inoperable.
That monitor is dead; don’t bother hooking it up.
16
Usually No longer used or required.
There are several dead laws still on the books regulating where horses may be hitched.
Is this beer glass dead?
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No mark of any kind should ever be made on a dead manuscript.1984, Winston Smock, Technical Writing for Beginners, page 148:
In this paper, we survey the set of techniques found in the wild that are intended to prevent data-scrubbing operations from being removed during dead store elimination.2017, Zhaomo Yang, Brian Johannesmeyer, Dead Store Elimination (Still) Considered Harmful:
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Engineering, Natural sciences, Physical sciencesUsually Intentionally designed so as not to impart motion or power.
the dead spindle of a lathe
A dead axle, also called a lazy axle, is not part of the drivetrain, but is instead free-rotating.
Usually Full and complete (usually applied to nouns involving lack of motion, sound, activity, or other signs of life).
dead stop
dead sleep
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dead giveaway
dead silence
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Usually Exact; on the dot.
dead center
dead aim
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a dead eye
a dead level
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Usually Experiencing pins and needles (paresthesia).
After sitting on my hands for a while, my arms became dead.
› Expresses an emotional reaction associated…
24
Internet, Excessive, Often, Sometimes, Usually, As a standalone word, With 💀 Dying of laughter.
Lmao I’m dead this was me to my fiancé since I found out in the car and my son was in the back seat 😭2023 March 3, ihatethis6666666, “I am dead ☠️”, in Reddit, r/vanderpumprules:
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Internet, Often, Sometimes, Usually, As a standalone word, With 💀 Expresses shock, second-hand embarrassment, etc.
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Usually Constructed so as not to reflect or transmit sound; soundless; anechoic.
You breathe these dead news in as dead an ear.c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene vii]:
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LawUsually Cut off from the rights of a citizen; deprived of the power of enjoying the rights of property.
A person who is banished or who becomes a monk is civilly dead.
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Lifestyle, ReligionEspecially, Often, Rare, Usually, With "to" Indifferent to; having no obligation toward; no longer subject to or ruled by (sin, guilt, pleasure, etc).
He was dead to the law. Whatever account others might make of it, yet, for his part, he was dead to it. […] But though he was thus dead to the law, yet he […] was far from thinking himself discharged from his duty to God' on the contrary, he was dead to the law, that he might live unto God.1839, William Jenks, The Comprehensive Commentary on the Holy Bible: Acts-Revelation, page 361:
But he died to the guilt of sin—to the guilt of his people's sins which he had taken upon him; and they, dying with him, as is above declared, die to sin precisely in the same sense in which he died to it. […] He was not justified from it till his resurrection, but from that moment he was dead to it. When he shall appear the second time, it will be "without sin."1849, Robert Haldane, Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans, page 255:
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Human sciences, Linguistics, SciencesUsually Of a syllable in languages such as Thai and Burmese: ending abruptly.
[…] syllable is dead, the tone will depend on whether the vowel is short or long.2011, Russ Crowley, Learning Thai, Your Great Adventure, page 28:
72 terms(to be) at peace, (to be) at the end of the road, (to be) bereft of life, (to be) belly up, (to have) bitten the big one, (to have) bitten the dust, (to have) bought the farm, (to be) brown bread, (to have) ceased to be, (to be) checked out, (to be) dead and gone, (to be) dead as a dodo, (to be) dead as a doornail, (to be) dead as a doorknob, (to be) dead as a duck, (to be) dead as a haddock, (to be) dead as a hammer, (to be) dead as a herring, (to be) dead as a mackerel, (to be) dead as a nit, (to be) dead as a pickled herring, (to be) dead as a stump, (to be) dead as a turd, (to be) dead as a turd in a milk bucket, (to be) dead as dishwater, (to be) dead as mutton, (to be) dead as stone, (to be) dead as wood, (to be) deader than dead, (to be) deader than road kill, (to go) feet first, (to be) food for worms, (to be) gone away, (to have) gone on to one's reward, (to have) gone to be with Jesus, (to have) gone to heaven, (to have) gone to one's final resting place, (to have) gone to paradise, (to have) gone to sing with the angels, (to have) gone to the Great Beyond, (to have) gone to the next life, (to be) in Abraham's bosom, (to be) in heaven, (to be) in paradise, (to be) in the grave, (to have) joined the choir invisible, (to have) kicked the bucket, (to have) met one's end, (to have) met one's maker, (to be) no longer with us, (to be) offed, (to be) passed away, (to have) passed on, (to be) pining for the fjords, (to be) pushing up the daisies, (to be) resting in peace, (to have) run down the curtain, (to have) seen the reaper, (to have) shuffled off this mortal coil, (to be) six feet under, (to) sleep with the fishes, (to have) snuffed it, (to be) stone dead, (to be) taking a dirt nap, (to be) washed up, (to be) with God, (to be) worm food, (to be) wasted, die, kill, death, cemetery
dead
adv
Etymology From Middle English ded, deed, from Old English dēad, from Proto-West Germanic *daud, from Proto-Germanic *daudaz. Compare West Frisian dead, dea, Dutch dood, German tot, Danish and Norwegian Bokmål død, Norwegian Nynorsk daud, Swedish död.
dead right; dead level; dead flat; dead straight; dead left
He hit the target dead in the centre.
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Across the region known as the Landes, this stretch of line is almost dead level, and the only curve is one of 2¼ miles radius through the station of Labouheyre.1955 June, 'Mercury', “Over 200 Miles Per Hour”, in Railway Magazine, page 379:
Independent tests later confirmed [the figures] to be accurate, with Car & Driver seeing 159mph (254kph), 0.60 in five seconds dead, and an amazingly high 0.97g.2003 December 1, Brian Long, RX-7 Mazda’s Rotary Engine Sports Car: Updated & Enlarged Edition, Veloce Publishing Ltd, →ISBN, page 145:
And because the tunnel is dead straight, it's perfect for reaching high speeds.2023 November 29, Peter Plisner, “The winds of change in Catesby Tunnel”, in RAIL, number 997, page 56:
dead wrong; dead set; dead serious; dead drunk; dead broke; dead earnest; dead certain; dead slow; dead sure; dead simple; dead honest; dead accurate; dead easy
I knew once a Scotch sailmaker who was certain, dead sure, there were people in Mars.1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 216:
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They tried the gas in the room and it was dead out; they looked at the meter in the basement afterwards and it was dead off.1923, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], “(please specify the page)”, in The Eyes of Max Carrados, London: Grant Richards, →OCLC:
dead tired; dead quiet; dead asleep; dead pale; dead cold; dead still
I was tired of reading, and dead sleepy.1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, chapter 2, in The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC:
dead
noun
Etymology From Middle English ded, deed, from Old English dēad, from Proto-West Germanic *daud, from Proto-Germanic *daudaz. Compare West Frisian dead, dea, Dutch dood, German tot, Danish and Norwegian Bokmål død, Norwegian Nynorsk daud, Swedish död.
1
Often, With definite article Time when coldness, darkness, or stillness is most intense.
Near-synonym: nadir
the dead of night
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the dead of winter
dead
verb
Etymology From Middle English ded, deed, from Old English dēad, from Proto-West Germanic *daud, from Proto-Germanic *daudaz. Compare West Frisian dead, dea, Dutch dood, German tot, Danish and Norwegian Bokmål død, Norwegian Nynorsk daud, Swedish död.
1
To prevent by disabling; to stop.
1826, The Whole Works of the Right Rev. Edward Reynolds, Lord Bishop of Norwich, collected by Edward Reynolds, Benedict Riveley, and Alexander Chalmers. pp. 227. London: B. Holdsworth. “What a man should do, when finds his natural impotency dead him in spiritual works”
2
To make dead; to deaden; to deprive of life, force, or vigour.
Heaven's stern decree, / With many an ill, hath numb'd and deaded me.1614–1615, Homer, “(please specify the book number)”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., Homer’s Odysses. […], London: […] Rich[ard] Field [and William Jaggard], for Nathaniell Butter, published 1615, →OCLC; republished in The Odysseys of Homer, […], volume (please specify the book number), London: John Russell Smith, […], 1857, →OCLC:
I shoulda deaded it from genesis instead of hittin' the Guinnesses2004, “Guinnesses”, in Mm..Food, performed by MF Doom ft. Angelika & 4-IZE:
This dude at the club was trying to kill us so I deaded him, and then I had to collect from Spice.2006, Leighanne Boyd, Once Upon A Time In The Bricks, page 178:
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“What, you was just gonna dead him because if that's the case then why the fuck we getting the money?” Sha asked annoyed.2008, Marvlous Harrison, The Coalition, page 106:
TOMMY:”Honestly, I’d love to help you with that but I’ve got a surplus of motherfuckers that I need to dead right now.”2020 January 6, Courtney A. Kemp, Matt K. Turner, 33:48 from the start, in Power, season 6, episode 11, spoken by Tommy Egan (E Joseph Sikora):
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Broadly, Slang To discontinue or put an end to (something).
African-American Vernacular
"I thought I told you to shut up," said Jesus. "I don't be laying up with chickenheads, so you need to dead that shit before you piss me the fuck off."2005, Black Artemis, Picture Me Rollin', New York, N.Y.: New American Library, →ISBN, page 269:
"This might be kinda beside the point right now," I said carefully, settling into the chair across from him, "but it's probably time to dead all that open-door no-gun shit, huh?"2013, Adam Mansbach, Rage Is Back, New York, N.Y.: Viking, →ISBN, page 140:
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"Shorty, whatchu got in your pocket? Let me see that hat." ¶ "Nah, man. Dead that." Out would come the .32. ¶ "Oh, aight. You got that, shorty, you got that."2018, U-God [Lamont Hawkins], Raw: My Journey Into The Wu-Tang, New York, N.Y.: Picador, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 118:
Etymology From Middle English ded, deed, from Old English dēad, from Proto-West Germanic *daud, from Proto-Germanic *daudaz. Compare West Frisian dead, dea, Dutch dood, German tot, Danish and Norwegian Bokmål død, Norwegian Nynorsk daud, Swedish död.
He will come again to judge the living and the dead.
dead
noun
Etymology From Middle English ded, deed, from Old English dēad, from Proto-West Germanic *daud, from Proto-Germanic *daudaz. Compare West Frisian dead, dea, Dutch dood, German tot, Danish and Norwegian Bokmål død, Norwegian Nynorsk daud, Swedish död.
1
UK (usually in the plural) Sterile mining waste, often present as many large rocks stacked inside the workings.