Meanings
- idiomaticThe middle of the winter, characterized by being particularly cold.
‘A cold coming we had of it, Just the worst time of the year For a journey, and such a long journey: The ways deep and the weather sharp, The very dead of winter.’
1927 August, T[homas] S[tearns] Eliot, “[Ariel Poems.] Journey of the Magi.”, in Collected Poems 1909–1935, London: Faber & Faber […], published September 1954, →OCLC, page 1071 more example
Eleanor chronicled both her solo journey from Beijing via the Trans-Siberian Railroad to Novosibirsk and Semipalatinsk and then via sled in the dead of winter to Chuguchak and the couple's subsequent travels in Turkestan Reunion. Their odyssey together across Xinjiang provided the framework for Lattimore's much broader cultural and historical observations in High Tartary.
1995 April 16, Orville Schell, “THE STRANGE ORDEAL OF OWEN LATTIMORE”, in The Washington Post, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 08 Dec 2017
Cite this entry
dead of winter. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dead%20of%20winter
“dead of winter.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dead%20of%20winter. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “dead of winter,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dead%20of%20winter.
Source: dead of winter on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.