dead end
noun
something, as a street or water pipe, that has no exit.
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dead end
1 Americannoun
-
dead ends
plural
-
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.
dead-end
2
American
[ded-end]
/ ˈdɛdˈɛnd /
adjective
-
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.
verb (used without object)
-
dead-ends,
present (3rd person singular)
-
dead-ended,
past participle, past
-
dead-ending
present participle
dead end
British
noun
-
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
verb
dead end
Idioms
-
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]
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
dead-endsimple
-
dead-endssimple
-
have dead-endedperfect
-
has dead-endedperfect
-
am dead-endingprogressive
-
are dead-endingprogressive
-
is dead-endingprogressive
-
have been dead-endingperfect progressive
-
has been dead-endingperfect progressive
Past
-
dead-endedsimple
-
had dead-endedperfect
-
was dead-endingprogressive
-
were dead-endingprogressive
-
had been dead-endingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of dead end1
First recorded in 1885–90
Origin of dead-end2
First recorded in 1885–90
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.
See Examples For:
"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
The island is inching closer to a humanitarian crisis, and its insolvent government faces a dead end.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 21, 2026
“Jus, if Melo and SJ are diverging paths on the road of life, you’re headed for a dead end, my friend.”
From "Dear Martin" by Nic Stone
Still, the next day, June 23, CBS News’ website plowed the same dead-end road with this headline: “Vance Says Iran to Let International Nuclear Inspections Resume After ‘Good Day’ of Talks.”
From Slate ● Jun. 24, 2026
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
Or they retreated, following Macdonald’s advice, into social irrelevance by adopting dead-end pseudo-philosophies like deconstructionism.
From Salon ● Apr. 19, 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
It was like finding yourself on a dead-end street, Lina thought.
From "The City of Ember" by Jeanne DuPrau
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
We drive for a while and the road dead-ends into a Victorian farmhouse.
From "Paper Towns" by John Green
The street dead-ended at some railroad tracks, beyond which flowed the St. Johns River.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 26, 2021
He followed a trail left by the missing climbers that dead-ended in an avalanche, and sounded an alert.
From Washington Times ● Jun. 6, 2019
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
Four houses beyond us you’d run into St. James, where Church Street dead-ended at Barton.
From "Reaching for the Moon" by Katherine Johnson
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.
