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
BBC correspondent Robert Reid watched tens of thousands of defeated men, many of them "stretched out dead beat" on the bonnets of their vehicles, being sent into a field that was being used as a "temporary cage".
From BBC
“I can’t stand these things a moment longer. Heavens, I'm dead beat. I don’t believe I’ve missed a dance. Anyway, it was a tremendous success.”
From Literature
Newspapers from California to Georgia began to parrot his approach, and he was featured by author Marilyn Johnson in her acclaimed 2006 book about obituaries, “The Dead Beat.”
From Washington Post
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 Literature
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.
