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dead
[ ded ]
adjective
- no longer living; deprived of life:
dead people;
dead flowers;
dead animals.
- brain-dead.
- not endowed with life; inanimate:
dead stones.
- resembling death; deathlike:
a dead sleep;
a dead faint.
- bereft of sensation; numb:
He was half dead with fright.
My leg feels dead.
- lacking sensitivity of feeling; insensitive:
dead to the needs of others.
Synonyms: cold, callous, indifferent, unfeeling
- incapable of being emotionally moved; unresponsive:
dead to the nuances of the music.
- (of an emotion) no longer felt; ended; extinguished: dead affections.
a dead passion;
dead affections.
- no longer current or prevalent, as in effect, significance, or practice; obsolete:
a dead law;
a dead controversy.
- no longer functioning, operating, or productive:
a dead motor;
a dead battery.
Synonyms: inoperative, inert
dead water;
dead air.
Synonyms: motionless, still
- utterly tired; exhausted:
They felt dead from the six-hour trip.
- (of a language) no longer in use as a sole means of oral communication among a people:
Latin is a dead language.
- without vitality, spirit, enthusiasm, or the like:
a dead party.
a dead business day.
dead silence;
The plan was a dead loss.
- sudden or abrupt, as the complete stoppage of an action:
The bus came to a dead stop.
- put out; extinguished:
a dead cigarette.
- without resilience or bounce:
a dead tennis ball.
dead land.
Synonyms: sterile
the dead center of a circle.
a dead shot.
a dead line.
- tasteless or flat, as a beverage:
a dead soft drink.
- flat rather than glossy, bright, or brilliant:
The house was painted dead white.
- without resonance; anechoic:
dead sound;
a dead wall surface of a recording studio.
- not fruitful; unproductive:
dead capital.
- Law. deprived of civil rights so that one is in the state of civil death, especially deprived of the rights of property.
- Sports. out of play:
a dead ball.
- (of a golf ball) lying so close to the hole as to make holing on the next stroke a virtual certainty.
- (of type or copy) having been used or rejected.
- Electricity.
- free from any electric connection to a source of potential difference and from electric charge.
- not having a potential different from that of the earth.
- Metallurgy. (of steel)
- fully killed.
- unresponsive to heat treatment.
- (of the mouth of a horse) no longer sensitive to the pressure of a bit.
- noting any rope in a tackle that does not pass over a pulley or is not rove through a block.
noun
- the period of greatest darkness, coldness, etc.:
the dead of night;
the dead of winter.
- the dead, dead persons collectively:
Prayers were recited for the dead.
adverb
dead right;
dead tired.
- with sudden and total stoppage of motion, action, or the like:
He stopped dead.
The island lay dead ahead.
dead
/ dɛd /
adjective
- no longer alive
- ( as noun )
the dead
- not endowed with life; inanimate
- no longer in use, valid, effective, or relevant
a dead issue
a dead language
- unresponsive or unaware; insensible
he is dead to my strongest pleas
- lacking in freshness, interest, or vitality
a dead handshake
- devoid of physical sensation; numb
his gums were dead from the anaesthetic
- resembling death; deathlike
a dead sleep
- no longer burning or hot
dead coals
- (of flowers or foliage) withered; faded
- prenominal (intensifier)
a dead loss
a dead stop
- informal.very tired
- electronics
- drained of electric charge; fully discharged
the battery was dead
- not connected to a source of potential difference or electric charge
- lacking acoustic reverberation
a dead surface
a dead sound
- sport (of a ball, etc) out of play
- unerring; accurate; precise (esp in the phrase a dead shot )
- lacking resilience or bounce
a dead ball
- printing
- (of type) set but no longer needed for use Compare standing
- (of copy) already composed
- not yielding a return; idle
dead capital
- informal.certain to suffer a terrible fate; doomed
you're dead if your mother catches you at that
- (of colours) not glossy or bright; lacklustre
- stagnant
dead air
- military shielded from view, as by a geographic feature or environmental condition
a dead zone
dead space
- dead as a doornail informal.completely dead
- dead from the neck up informal.stupid or unintelligent
- dead in the water informal.unsuccessful, and with little hope of future success
the talks are now dead in the water
- dead to the world informal.unaware of one's surroundings, esp fast asleep or very drunk
- leave for dead
- to abandon
- to surpass or outdistance by far
- wouldn't be seen dead in informal.to refuse to wear or to go to
noun
- a period during which coldness, darkness, or some other quality associated with death is at its most intense
the dead of winter
adverb
- (intensifier)
dead easy
stop dead
dead level
- dead onexactly right
Derived Forms
- ˈdeadness, noun
Other Words From
- dead·ness noun
- half-dead adjective
Word History and Origins
Word History and Origins
Origin of dead1
Idioms and Phrases
- dead in the water, completely inactive or inoperable; no longer in action or under consideration:
Our plans to expand the business have been dead in the water for the past two months.
- dead to rights, in the very act of committing a crime, offense, or mistake; red-handed: Also Chiefly British, bang to rights.
Just when you think you’ve got the killer dead to rights, you find out there’s a whole lot more going on.
More idioms and phrases containing dead
- beat a dead horse
- caught dead
- cut someone dead
- drop dead
- knock dead
- more dead than alive
- over my dead body
- quick and the dead
- stop cold (dead)
- to wake the dead
- death
Synonym Study
Example Sentences
Police responded to the scene, and Onyeuka was pronounced dead.
Your movement might be dead, but there is a place for you to go.
It was an image of a dead woodcock lying on the street in New York City.
In quantum mechanics, this weird “is the cat alive or dead” state is dubbed superposition.
The Gleasons tell people who have observed lethargic or dead birds around their homes to take down their feeders for two weeks, so local birds can disperse and find food in the wild.
The cartoonist, better known as Charb, was shot dead Wednesday.
A policewoman was shot dead this morning while law enforcement searched for the Charlie Lebdo killers.
Absent a body, no one can say with absolute certainty whether Castro is dead, even if all signs point in that direction.
The two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is dead.
Yes, Byrd—dead four-and-a-half years now—was a Kleagle in the Ku Klux Klan.
A little boy of four was moved to passionate grief at the sight of a dead dog taken from a pond.
When he plays a sonata it is as if the composition rose from the dead and stood transfigured before you.
To-day I'm more dead than alive, as we had a lesson from him yesterday that lasted four hours.
It is a fearsome thing for a man to be left alone in the dead of night with a young baby.
If they are Ancients and dead then let them be buried and left to the archæological excavator.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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