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
Eight of them went straight in, dead beat, and stretched out on the floor near the oil press.
From Time Magazine Archive
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
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.
