dead-end

comparative more dead-end · superlative most dead-end · alternative deadend

1. alsofigurativelyGoing nowhere; blocked.

   a dead-end street

   5 more examples

   I felt trapped in a dead-end job.

   In a West End town, a dead end world / The East End boys and West End girls

   1984, Neil Tennant, Chris Lowe, “West End Girls”, performed by Pet Shop Boys

   Livin' in this house with no furnace, unfurnished / And I'm sick of workin' dead-end jobs with lame pay

   1999, “Rock Bottom”, in The Slim Shady LP, performed by Eminem

   [...] as it approached Platform 9 at Moorgate, the train, which ought to have been going at 15 miles an hour, was travelling at 35 m.p.h., and apparently accelerating. It smashed into the head wall of the 60-foot dead-end tunnel because, as we have seen, the Metropolitan's plans to extend the line south had come to nothing.

   2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 124

   So where did all the dead-end jobs come from in the first place?

   2014 May 25, Tom Clark, “To grasp the dead-end jobs boom, head to the car wash”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

present singular third person dead-ends · participle present dead-ending · participle past dead-ended · past dead-ended · alternative deadend

1. USTo come to a dead-end.

   Watch out! The road dead-ends in 200 yards and there's nowhere to turn around!

   1. USbroadlyTo come to nothing; to reach a hopeless situation.

      His great-grandfather's career dead-ended when lectors in the cigar industry became obsolete.

      2 more examples

      Dumas' tangle of unrequited, misplaced and dead-ended love

      1986 February 1, Michael Bronski, “Mock Homage to Fassbinder's Life & Films”, in Gay Community News, volume 13, number 28, page 6

      And how adept a person is at those is crucial to understanding why one person thrives in life while another, of equal intellect, dead-ends: emotional aptitude is a meta-ability, determining how well we can use whatever other skills we have, including raw intellect.

      1995, Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ, Paperback Edition, page 36

plural dead-ends · alternative deadend

1. alternativeAlternative spelling of dead end: a road with no exit.

   We turned into the street and realised it was a dead-end.

2. alternativefigurativelyAlternative spelling of dead end: a position that offers no hope of progress.

   Mary realised her relationship with Jim had hit a dead-end.

   2 more examples

   However, there is evidence that he has reached a political dead-end.

   2024 September 3, Alon Pinkas, “As furious protesters take to the streets, Netanyahu may well have reached his political dead-end”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

   “We are at something of a strategic dead-end,” said Richard N. Haass, a longtime diplomat who served at the State Department and the National Security Council under several administrations, including George W. Bush’s during the early days of the Iraq war.

   2026 July 10, David E. Sanger, quoting Richard N. Haass, “Bombing and a Tentative Accord Didn’t Work. Does Trump Have a Plan C for Iran?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN