dead

comparative deader · superlative deadest

1. not comparableusuallyNo longer living; deceased. (Also used as a noun.)

   Have respect for the dead.

   5 more examples

   All of my grandparents are dead.

   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. not comparableusuallyDevoid of living things; barren.

   a dead planet

   2 more examples

   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

   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. excessivenot comparableusuallyFiguratively, 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. not comparableusuallyUtterly 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. not comparableusuallySo hated or offensive as to be absolutely shunned, ignored, or ostracized.

   He is dead to me.

   1 more example

   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

6. not comparableusuallyliteral or hyperbolicDoomed; marked for death; as good as dead.

   "You come back here this instant! Oh, you're dead, mister!"

   1 more example

   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. not comparableusuallyWithout emotion; impassive.

   She stood with dead face and limp arms, unresponsive to my plea.

8. not comparableusuallyStationary; static; immobile or immovable.

   a dead lift

   1 more example

   the dead load on the floor

9. not comparableusuallyWithout interest to one of the senses; dull; flat.

   dead air

   2 more examples

   a dead glass of soda.

   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. not comparableusuallyUnproductive; fallow.

    dead time

    2 more examples

    dead fields

    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

11. not comparableusuallyPast, 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

12. not comparableusuallyLacking usual activity; unexpectedly quiet or empty of people.

    For a Friday night, it's really dead in this restaurant.

    Antonyms: alive, bustling, busy, crowded, hopping, lively, noisy

13. not comparableusuallydevice; or electrical circuit; device; or electrical circuitCompletely inactive; currently without power; without a signal; not live.

    OK, the circuit's dead. Go ahead and cut the wire.

    3 more examples

    Now that the motor's dead you can reach in and extract the spark plugs.

    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

14. not comparableusuallyUnable to emit power, being discharged (flat) or faulty.
15. not comparableusuallyBroken or inoperable.

    That monitor is dead; don’t bother hooking it up.

16. not comparableusuallyNo longer used or required.

    Is this beer glass dead?

    3 more examples

    There are several dead laws still on the books regulating where horses may be hitched.

    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

17. not comparableusuallyengineeringIntentionally designed so as not to impart motion or power.

    the dead spindle of a lathe

    1 more example

    A dead axle, also called a lazy axle, is not part of the drivetrain, but is instead free-rotating.

18. not comparableusuallyhobbiesNot in play.

    Once the ball crosses the foul line, it's dead.

19. not comparableusuallygolfLying so near the hole that the player is certain to hole it in the next stroke.
20. not comparableslangusuallyball gamesTagged out.
21. not comparableusuallyFull and complete (usually applied to nouns involving lack of motion, sound, activity, or other signs of life).

    dead stop

    3 more examples

    dead sleep

    dead giveaway

    dead silence

22. not comparableusuallyExact; on the dot.

    dead aim

    3 more examples

    dead center

    a dead eye

    a dead level

23. not comparableusuallyExperiencing pins and needles (paresthesia).

    After sitting on my hands for a while, my arms became dead.

24. Expresses an emotional reaction associated with hyperbolic senses of die:
    1. Internetexcessivenot comparableoftensometimesusuallyDying 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

       Synonyms: RIP, mul:💀, crying, LMAO, ROFL, mul:😭

    2. Internetnot comparableoftensometimesusuallyExpresses shock, second-hand embarrassment, etc.

       Synonyms: RIP, mul:💀

25. not comparableusuallyacousticsConstructed so as not to reflect or transmit sound; soundless; anechoic.

    a dead floor

26. not comparableobsoleteusuallyBringing death; deadly.

    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]

27. not comparableusuallylawCut 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.

28. especiallynot comparableoftenrareusuallylifestyleIndifferent 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

    1 more example

    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

29. not comparableusuallyhuman sciencesOf 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

    Antonyms: live

1. colloquialinformalnot comparabledegreeExactly.

   He hit the target dead in the centre.

   5 more examples

   dead right; dead level; dead flat; dead straight; dead left

   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

   The ships would leave Europe in April, when there was a good easterly wind. Trans-Atlantic mariners wanted the wind dead on the stern, so they could run with it, sticking to the same latitude—a method called easting and westing. Columbus, Cabot, and many others had done this.

   1997, Mark Kurlansky, “Chapter 4: 1620: The Rock and the Cod”, in Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World, Walker, →ISBN

   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

2. colloquialinformalnot comparabledegreeVery, absolutely, extremely.

   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

   2 more examples

   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

   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

3. not comparableSuddenly and completely.

   He stopped dead.

   1 more example

   She cut me dead again at the last party.

4. informalnot comparableAs if dead.

   dead tired; dead quiet; dead asleep; dead pale; dead cold; dead still

   1 more example

   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

1. oftenuncountablewith definite articleTime when coldness, darkness, or stillness is most intense.

   the dead of night

   2 more examples

   Near-synonym: nadir

   the dead of winter

   Synonyms: nadir

1. pluralplural onlywith definite articleThose who have died: dead people.

   the quick and the dead

   2 more examples

   Will the dead rise again?

   He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

   Synonyms: deceased, departed · Antonyms: living, quick

plural deads

1. UK(usually in the plural) Sterile mining waste, often present as many large rocks stacked inside the workings.
2. abbreviationclippingcolloquialbodybuildingClipping of deadlift.

present singular third person deads · participle present deading · participle past deaded · past deaded

1. transitiveTo 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. transitiveTo 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

3. UKUSslangtransitiveTo kill.

   I shoulda deaded it from genesis instead of hittin' the Guinnesses

   2004, “Guinnesses”, in Mm..Food, performed by MF Doom ft. Angelika & 4-IZE

   3 more examples

   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

   “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)

4. broadlyslangtransitiveAfrican-American VernacularTo discontinue or put an end to (something).

   "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

   2 more examples

   "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

   "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

1. abbreviationinitialismuncountablechemistryInitialism of diethyl azodicarboxylate.
2. abbreviationacronymuncountableaeronauticsAcronym of destruction of enemy air defense(s).