something, as a street or water pipe, that has no exit.
a position that offers no hope of progress; blind alley; cul-de-sac.
His theory led him to a dead end.
terminating in a dead end.
a dead-end street.
Also dead-ended. having no possibility for or hope of progress, advancement, etc..
a low-level, dead-end job.
leading a life in the slums.
growing up as a tough dead-end kid.
another name for cul-de-sac
a situation in which further progress is impossible
dead-end. ( as modifier )
a dead-end street
a dead-end job
A passage that has no exit, as in This street's a dead end, so turn back . [Late 1800s]
An impasse or blind alley, allowing no progress to be made. For example, This job is a dead end; I'll never be able to advance . [c. 1920]
First recorded in 1885–90
First recorded in 1885–90
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"The first part is like a tube station, with a dead end and a platform, then from the platform smaller tunnels went at right angles."
From BBC ● Jul. 11, 2026
Despite the promising findings, the research reached a dead end because scientists could not determine the molecules' exact three dimensional structures.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 6, 2026
In an interview with the Financial Times, the Turing Award winner lamented that, although "he learns fast," Wang has "no experience with research" and was on "a dead end" quest.
From Barron's ● Jul. 1, 2026
“It’s a dead end or a bridge to nowhere.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 26, 2026
As Teddy and I booked past the fire station there was a road off to the left, a dead end that ran into a metal fence.
From "Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood" by Trevor Noah
Italian divers who died in the Maldives may have taken the wrong tunnel in a cave and died in a dead-end corridor, the head of the company that recovered their bodies told AFP Thursday.
From Barron's ● May 21, 2026
Tucked away in rural western Maryland, past a dead-end road cut off by railroad tracks, a stream runs cool and clear over a ledge dotted with snails.
From Slate ● Apr. 27, 2026
They worked dead-end jobs to make ends meet.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 12, 2026
She’s hardly in a position to do much more than accept what’s going on as a grimmer version of her own dead-end predicament.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 6, 2026
I sighed and plopped down on the first step, worried we’d made our way into another dead-end, boring, waste of time, dusty mudhole of a town, with another move not too far off.
From "Hope Springs" by Jaime Berry
Page got to work looking for a writer, a process that involved many dead-ends and far too many pitches about, “a local coming out of Louisiana and now she’s a star,” Page said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 15, 2025
However, pharmaceutical companies want to recover their years of research and development costs - and the field has produced a lot of expensive duds and dead-ends.
From BBC ● Aug. 23, 2024
Podcasts such as The Coldest Case in Laramie and Bear Brook detail twists and turns in who-done-it style journalism, exposing dead-ends and biases in investigations that have left possible killers free for decades.
From Slate ● Jun. 4, 2023
Toward the horizon, the yellow turf dead-ends into a construction zone where, days into the tournament, heavy machinery was arranging still more containers.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 24, 2022
Instead of heading toward The Strand, however, he takes a small turnoff down a dirt road that dead-ends.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
Larson concluded his military career in Ukraine had dead-ended after clashes with a Ukrainian officer whom he alleged stole money from the unit.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 25, 2022
The college grad with a geology degree who found himself dead-ended in the oil and gas industry.
From Washington Times ● Oct. 24, 2018
Imagine walking through a maze, for years and years, to find that your path has dead-ended near the exit.
From The Guardian ● Dec. 19, 2017
I tried to tiptoe away without notice, but the road dead-ended.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 23, 2015
Hallways took odd turns, dead-ended unexpectedly, or took long, rambling, roundabout paths.
From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss
And just as she acts on her instructions to “get him out of his shell,” he persuades her to consider why she’ll be dead-ending it in Montauk for the foreseeable future.
From New York Times ● Jun. 21, 2023
Bailey Street passes Mariachi Plaza, where mariachis hang out looking to be hired, before dead-ending at White Memorial hospital.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 7, 2022
The road’s 92-mile route winds up, over and around sheer mountain passes before dead-ending at an old mining community at its westernmost point.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 15, 2021
Meticulously pruned, terraced chardonnay vines dominated the full vista, dead-ending at the slopes of Mont Blanc off to the north.
From New York Times ● Sep. 30, 2015
Mami pushed me into the plane, down a long aisle lined with seats dead-ending against a wall—my first glimpse of what New York would be like.
From "When I Was Puerto Rican" by Esmeralda Santiago
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.
