dead key

British

noun

a key on the keyboard of a typewriter which does not automatically advance the carriage when depressed

"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

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.

In another hall, the piano had a dead key, and a message: “I tried to fix that note but I couldn’t. Try not to use it too much.”

From New York Times • May 6, 2023

Central characters are long dead; key documents have gone missing or remain classified.

From Washington Post • Oct. 13, 2017

Two hours later, the agent once more at his dead key, Ba'tiste turned to Houston.

From The White Desert by Fischer, Anton Otto

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023