dead of

Idioms  

1. The period of greatest intensity of something, such as darkness or cold. For example, I love looking at seed catalogs in the dead of winter, when it's below zero outside. The earliest recorded use of dead of night, for “darkest time of night,” was in Edward Hall's Chronicle of 1548: “In the dead of the night ... he broke up his camp and fled.” Dead of winter, for the coldest part of winter, dates from the early 1600s.

---

Example Sentences

Here, "your information and history are being removed in the dead of night," he told AFP.

From Barron's • May 17, 2026

Shah Alam spent his final days trying to find his way home, alone and stranded in the dead of winter.

From Slate • Mar. 19, 2026

Since early February, the 37-year-old has spent more than 40 hours cutting hair ties, tissues and receipts off the fencing—through the dead of winter, with no official mandate and no pay.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 10, 2026

Written in the dead of night in her university room, they were rooted in the sounds of UK garage and drum and bass, and the buzz earned her the BBC's Sound of 2022 award.

From BBC • Feb. 23, 2026

Maybe it was the tales Lola told him about evil three-headed monkeys that thrived in the darkness, or her stories of bad children who were plucked up by birds in the dead of night.

From "Hello, Universe" by Erin Entrada Kelly