dead beat
Britishadjective
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Defeated; also exhausted. For example, That horse was dead beat before the race even began , or, as Charles Dickens put it in Martin Chuzzlewit (1843): “Pull off my boots for me ... I am quite knocked up. Dead beat.” [ Slang ; first half of 1800s]
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Also, deadbeat . A lazy person or loafer; also, one who does not pay debts. For example, Her housemate knew she was a deadbeat, shirking her share of the chores , or He's a deadbeat; don't count on getting that money back . [ Slang ; second half of 1800s]
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
How woefully The Post covers necrology news, the dead beat.
From Washington Post • Feb. 19, 2021
He added in another message: “I am not a dead beat I do not get any disability.”
From Washington Post • Jul. 20, 2017
By the world's standards he is a rich dead beat who has never done a lick of work in his 36 years.
From Time Magazine Archive
Eight of them went straight in, dead beat, and stretched out on the floor near the oil press.
From Time Magazine Archive
He had known, for instance, a horse nearly dead beat with fatigue to perk up when told it was only a little farther to his destination.
From "The Red Pony" by John Steinbeck
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.
