dead

[ded]

adjective, dead·er, dead·est.

no longer living; deprived of life: dead people; dead flowers; dead animals.

brain-dead.

not endowed with life; inanimate: dead stones.

resembling death; deathlike: a dead sleep; a dead faint.

bereft of sensation; numb: He was half dead with fright. My leg feels dead.

lacking sensitivity of feeling; insensitive: dead to the needs of others.

incapable of being emotionally moved; unresponsive: dead to the nuances of the music.

(of an emotion) no longer felt; ended; extinguished: a dead passion; dead affections.

no longer current or prevalent, as in effect, significance, or practice; obsolete: a dead law; a dead controversy.

no longer functioning, operating, or productive: a dead motor; a dead battery.

not moving or circulating; stagnant; stale: dead water; dead air.

utterly tired; exhausted: They felt dead from the six-hour trip.

(of a language) no longer in use as a sole means of oral communication among a people: Latin is a dead language.

without vitality, spirit, enthusiasm, or the like: a dead party.

lacking the customary activity; dull; inactive: a dead business day.

complete; absolute: dead silence; The plan was a dead loss.

sudden or abrupt, as the complete stoppage of an action: The bus came to a dead stop.

put out; extinguished: a dead cigarette.

without resilience or bounce: a dead tennis ball.

infertile; barren: dead land.

exact; precise: the dead center of a circle.

accurate; sure; unerring: a dead shot.

direct; straight: a dead line.

tasteless or flat, as a beverage: a dead soft drink.

flat rather than glossy, bright, or brilliant: The house was painted dead white.

without resonance; anechoic: dead sound; a dead wall surface of a recording studio.

not fruitful; unproductive: dead capital.

Law. deprived of civil rights so that one is in the state of civil death, especially deprived of the rights of property.

Sports. out of play: a dead ball.

(of a golf ball) lying so close to the hole as to make holing on the next stroke a virtual certainty.

(of type or copy) having been used or rejected.

Electricity.

free from any electric connection to a source of potential difference and from electric charge.
not having a potential different from that of the earth.

Metallurgy. (of steel)

fully killed.
unresponsive to heat treatment.

(of the mouth of a horse) no longer sensitive to the pressure of a bit.

noting any rope in a tackle that does not pass over a pulley or is not rove through a block.

noun

the period of greatest darkness, coldness, etc.: the dead of night; the dead of winter.

the dead, dead persons collectively: Prayers were recited for the dead.

adverb

absolutely; completely: dead right; dead tired.

with sudden and total stoppage of motion, action, or the like: He stopped dead.

directly; exactly; straight: The island lay dead ahead.

Origin of dead

before 950; Middle English deed, Old English dēad; cognate with Gothic dauths, German tot, Old Norse daudhr; orig. past participle See die¹

SYNONYMS FOR dead

6. unfeeling, indifferent, callous, cold. 10. inert, inoperative. 11. still, motionless. 16. utter, entire, total. 20. sterile.

ANTONYMS FOR dead

1. living, alive.

Related formsdead·ness, nounhalf-dead, adjective

Synonym study

1. Dead, deceased, extinct, lifeless refer to something that does not have or appear to have life. Dead is usually applied to something that had life but from which life is now gone: dead trees. Deceased, a more formal word than dead, is applied to human beings who no longer have life: a deceased member of the church. Extinct is applied to a species, genus, or the like, no member of which is any longer alive: Mastodons are now extinct. Lifeless is applied to something that may or may not have had life but that does not have it or appear to have it now: The lifeless body of a child was taken out of the water. Minerals consist of lifeless materials.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

British Dictionary definitions for dead in the water

dead

adjective

no longer alive
(as noun)the dead

not endowed with life; inanimate

no longer in use, valid, effective, or relevanta dead issue; a dead language

unresponsive or unaware; insensiblehe is dead to my strongest pleas

lacking in freshness, interest, or vitalitya dead handshake

devoid of physical sensation; numbhis gums were dead from the anaesthetic

resembling death; deathlikea dead sleep

no longer burning or hotdead coals

(of flowers or foliage) withered; faded

(prenominal) (intensifier)a dead stop; a dead loss

informal very tired

electronics

drained of electric charge; fully dischargedthe battery was dead
not connected to a source of potential difference or electric charge

lacking acoustic reverberationa dead sound; a dead surface

sport (of a ball, etc) out of play

unerring; accurate; precise (esp in the phrase a dead shot)

lacking resilience or bouncea dead ball

printing

(of type) set but no longer needed for useCompare standing (def. 7)
(of copy) already composed

not yielding a return; idledead capital

informal certain to suffer a terrible fate; doomedyou're dead if your mother catches you at that

(of colours) not glossy or bright; lacklustre

stagnantdead air

military shielded from view, as by a geographic feature or environmental conditiona dead zone; dead space

dead as a doornail informal completely dead

dead from the neck up informal stupid or unintelligent

dead in the water informal unsuccessful, and with little hope of future successthe talks are now dead in the water

dead to the world informal unaware of one's surroundings, esp fast asleep or very drunk

leave for dead

to abandon
informalto surpass or outdistance by far

wouldn't be seen dead in informal to refuse to wear or to go to

noun

a period during which coldness, darkness, or some other quality associated with death is at its most intensethe dead of winter

adverb

(intensifier)dead easy; stop dead; dead level

dead on exactly right

Derived Formsdeadness, noun

Word Origin for dead

Old English dēad; related to Old High German tōt, Old Norse dauthr; see die 1

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for dead in the water

dead

adj.

Old English dead "dead," also "torpid, dull;" of water, "still, standing," from Proto-Germanic *dauthaz (cf. Old Saxon dod, Danish død, Swedish död, Old Frisian dad, Middle Dutch doot, Dutch dood, Old High German tot, German tot, Old Norse dauðr, Gothic dauþs "dead"), from PIE *dhou-toz-, from root *dheu- (3) "to die" (see die (v.)).

Meaning "insensible" is first attested early 13c. Of places, "inactive, dull," from 1580s. Used from 16c. in adjectival sense of "utter, absolute, quite" (cf. dead drunk first attested 1590s; dead heat, 1796). As an adverb, from late 14c. Dead on is 1889, from marksmanship. Dead duck is from 1844. Dead letter is from 1703, used of laws lacking force as well as uncollected mail. Phrase in the dead of the night first recorded 1540s.

For but ich haue bote of mi bale I am ded as dorenail (c.1350).

Dead soldier "emptied liquor bottle" is from 1913 in that form; the image is older:

Dead man, or Dead marine, a colloquialism for an empty bottle, possibly in humorous recognition of the fact that the spirits have departed. But the French also have the same phrase, un corps mort, a dead body, for which there can be no punning pretext. [Walsh, 1892]

Medicine definitions for dead in the water

dead

[dĕd]

adj.

Having lost life; no longer alive.

Lacking feeling or sensitivity; unresponsive.

Idioms and Phrases with dead in the water

dead in the water

Unable to function or move; inoperable. For example, Without an effective leader, our plans for expansion are dead in the water. Originally referring to a crippled ship, this colloquialism was soon applied more broadly.

dead

In addition to the idioms beginning with dead

dead ahead
dead and buried
dead as a doornail
dead beat
dead drunk
dead duck
dead end
dead from the neck up
dead heat
dead horse
dead in one's tracks
dead in the water
dead letter
dead loss
dead man
dead of
dead on one's feet
dead ringer
dead set against
dead soldier
dead tired
dead to rights
dead to the world
dead weight

also see:

beat a dead horse
caught dead
cut someone dead
drop dead
knock dead
more dead than alive
over my dead body
quick and the dead
stop cold (dead)
to wake the dead

Also see underdeath.

dead

adjective, dead·er, dead·est.

noun

adverb

RELATED CONTENT

Nearby words

Idioms

Origin of dead

Synonym study

dead

adjective

noun

adverb

Word Origin for dead

dead

dead

adj.

dead in the water

dead