dead man walking

noun

1. a condemned man walking from his prison cell to a place of execution
2. informal.
   any person in a doomed or untenable situation, esp one about to lose his or her job

Example Sentences

The United States has reached the endpoint of a cruel economic and political system that resembles a dead man walking–a zombie politics that thrives on the exploitation of the working class, immigrants, the poor, dispossessed, and helpless children dying under the bombed-out rubble of state terrorism.

From Salon

Israel has called him a “dead man walking.”

From Los Angeles Times

“Dead Man Walking,” his operatic debut from 2000 about a convicted murderer on death row, has become the most frequently performed new opera of the 21st century.

From Seattle Times

Only a month after “Dead Man Walking” opened the Metropolitan Opera’s 2023-24 season in a new production, Houston Grand Opera premiered Heggie’s “Intelligence,” which was inspired by the true story of two women spies — one free, one enslaved — working together during the Civil War.

From Seattle Times

Ryan McKinny, the bass-baritone who starred in the Met’s “Dead Man Walking” and for whom Heggie wrote the role of Mac, says the new opera “paints the big picture by focusing on a deeply personal story. Mac is someone in search of a community as well as in search for himself.”

From Seattle Times