dead wood

noun

Matters or things that have become unnecessary or otherwise useless; bloat, dead weight.

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Meanings

noundead wood (uncountable)
  1. figurativelyuncountableMatters or things that have become unnecessary or otherwise useless; bloat, dead weight.
    1 more example

    Everybody knows that when you have a layoff, you use it as chance to get rid of the people you wanted to get rid of anyway, but couldn't document or hadn't bothered documenting as bad employees […]. If you don't have much dead wood, you hope they make you use a senioentrity list, because then you can say it's out of your control.

    2001, Michael B. Arthur, Denise M. Rousseau, The Boundaryless Career: A New Employment Principle for a New Organizational Era, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 140
  2. uncountableUsed other than figuratively or idiomatically: see dead, wood.

Synonyms & antonyms

Also see
redundancy

Translations

Finnish riippakivi, kuollut puu
  • riippakivi(figuratively) matters or things that have become unnecessary or otherwise useless
  • kuollut puu(literally) wood that is dead
French bois mort, bois mort
  • bois mort(figuratively) matters or things that have become unnecessary or otherwise useless
  • bois mort(literally) wood that is dead
Polish zbędne rzeczy, martwe drewno
  • zbędne rzeczy(figuratively) matters or things that have become unnecessary or otherwise useless
  • martwe drewno(literally) wood that is dead
Cite this entry
APA

dead wood. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dead%20wood

MLA

“dead wood.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dead%20wood. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “dead wood,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dead%20wood.

Source: dead wood on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.