dead
Americanadjective
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no longer living; deprived of life.
dead people;
dead flowers;
dead animals.
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brain-dead.
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not endowed with life; inanimate.
dead stones.
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resembling death; deathlike.
a dead sleep;
a dead faint.
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bereft of sensation; numb.
He was half dead with fright.
My leg feels dead.
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lacking sensitivity of feeling; insensitive.
dead to the needs of others.
- Synonyms:
- cold, callous, indifferent, unfeeling
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incapable of being emotionally moved; unresponsive.
dead to the nuances of the music.
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(of an emotion) no longer felt; ended; extinguished: dead affections.
a dead passion;
dead affections.
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no longer current or prevalent, as in effect, significance, or practice; obsolete.
a dead law;
a dead controversy.
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no longer functioning, operating, or productive.
a dead motor;
a dead battery.
- Synonyms:
- inoperative, inert
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not moving or circulating; stagnant; stale.
dead water;
dead air.
- Synonyms:
- motionless, still
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utterly tired; exhausted.
They felt dead from the six-hour trip.
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(of a language) no longer in use as a sole means of oral communication among a people.
Latin is a dead language.
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without vitality, spirit, enthusiasm, or the like.
a dead party.
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lacking the customary activity; dull; inactive.
a dead business day.
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dead silence;
The plan was a dead loss.
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sudden or abrupt, as the complete stoppage of an action.
The bus came to a dead stop.
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put out; extinguished.
a dead cigarette.
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without resilience or bounce.
a dead tennis ball.
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dead land.
- Synonyms:
- sterile
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the dead center of a circle.
-
a dead shot.
-
a dead line.
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tasteless or flat, as a beverage.
a dead soft drink.
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flat rather than glossy, bright, or brilliant.
The house was painted dead white.
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without resonance; anechoic.
dead sound;
a dead wall surface of a recording studio.
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not fruitful; unproductive.
dead capital.
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Law. deprived of civil rights so that one is in the state of civil death, especially deprived of the rights of property.
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Sports. out of play.
a dead ball.
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(of a golf ball) lying so close to the hole as to make holing on the next stroke a virtual certainty.
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(of type or copy) having been used or rejected.
-
Electricity.
-
free from any electric connection to a source of potential difference and from electric charge.
-
not having a potential different from that of the earth.
-
-
Metallurgy. (of steel)
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fully killed.
-
unresponsive to heat treatment.
-
-
(of the mouth of a horse) no longer sensitive to the pressure of a bit.
-
noting any rope in a tackle that does not pass over a pulley or is not rove through a block.
noun
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the period of greatest darkness, coldness, etc..
the dead of night;
the dead of winter.
-
the dead, dead persons collectively.
Prayers were recited for the dead.
adverb
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dead right;
dead tired.
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with sudden and total stoppage of motion, action, or the like.
He stopped dead.
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The island lay dead ahead.
idioms
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dead to rights, in the very act of committing a crime, offense, or mistake; red-handed: Also bang to rights
Just when you think you’ve got the killer dead to rights, you find out there’s a whole lot more going on.
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dead in the water, completely inactive or inoperable; no longer in action or under consideration.
Our plans to expand the business have been dead in the water for the past two months.
adjective
-
-
no longer alive
-
( as noun )
the dead
-
-
not endowed with life; inanimate
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no longer in use, valid, effective, or relevant
a dead issue
a dead language
-
unresponsive or unaware; insensible
he is dead to my strongest pleas
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lacking in freshness, interest, or vitality
a dead handshake
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devoid of physical sensation; numb
his gums were dead from the anaesthetic
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resembling death; deathlike
a dead sleep
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no longer burning or hot
dead coals
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(of flowers or foliage) withered; faded
-
(prenominal) (intensifier)
a dead stop
a dead loss
-
informal very tired
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electronics
-
drained of electric charge; fully discharged
the battery was dead
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not connected to a source of potential difference or electric charge
-
-
lacking acoustic reverberation
a dead sound
a dead surface
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sport (of a ball, etc) out of play
-
unerring; accurate; precise (esp in the phrase a dead shot )
-
lacking resilience or bounce
a dead ball
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printing
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(of type) set but no longer needed for use Compare standing
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(of copy) already composed
-
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not yielding a return; idle
dead capital
-
informal certain to suffer a terrible fate; doomed
you're dead if your mother catches you at that
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(of colours) not glossy or bright; lacklustre
-
stagnant
dead air
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military shielded from view, as by a geographic feature or environmental condition
a dead zone
dead space
-
informal completely dead
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informal stupid or unintelligent
-
informal unsuccessful, and with little hope of future success
the talks are now dead in the water
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informal unaware of one's surroundings, esp fast asleep or very drunk
-
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to abandon
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informal to surpass or outdistance by far
-
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informal to refuse to wear or to go to
noun
adverb
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(intensifier)
dead easy
stop dead
dead level
-
exactly right
Synonym Usage
Dead, deceased, extinct, lifeless refer to something that does not have or appear to have life. Dead is usually applied to something that had life but from which life is now gone: dead trees. Deceased, a more formal word than dead, is applied to human beings who no longer have life: a deceased member of the church. Extinct is applied to a species, genus, or the like, no member of which is any longer alive: Mastodons are now extinct. Lifeless can be applied to a living thing that no longer appears to be alive ( the lifeless body of an unidentified man ) or to something that may never have been a living thing ( the lifeless materials of these minerals ).
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of dead
First recorded before 950; Middle English deed, Old English dēad; cognate with Gothic dauths, German tot, Old Norse daudhr; originally, past participle; see die 1
Explanation
Someone who's dead is not alive anymore. If you accidentally hit a squirrel with your car, you might stop and check to see if it's alive or dead. People — and animals — who are deceased are dead, and if you forget to water your favorite plant, it may be dead too. You can even use this word for inanimate objects: when your car's battery runs out of power, your car won't start because it's dead. People describe themselves as dead when they're exhausted or lacking appropriate emotion: "Her voice was dead and cold." If your town is boring, you can say, "It's dead here on the weekends."
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:
Cole simply poses as the dead man, climbs aboard the ship and . . . welcome to “Die Hard” at sea.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026
If you’ve ever been running errands, gone to start your car, and nothing happens because the battery is dead, you know how important it is to have a set of cables to jump-start your vehicle.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 20, 2026
In July, two men were pulled from the sea at West Wittering, and one of the men was confirmed dead at the scene, while the other was taken to hospital.
From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026
Other defensible space requirements have been on the books for decades, and dictate how homeowners must manage their yard through the spacing of trees, the removal of dead vegetation and other precautions.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026
“Lala, are you sure the boy was dead? Like, dead dead?” she asks, her voice cracking.
From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold
Now the creature represents extinction itself—you can’t get deader than a dodo.
From Scientific American ● Jan. 31, 2023
As the sun begins to disappear over the Puerto Rican palms Wednesday, Allenby manages to work an approach—into the breeze off the Caribbean coast, from a lie that’s deader than dead—onto the 11th green.
From Golf Digest ● Feb. 20, 2020
In 2014, England lost to Italy and Uruguay before drawing 0-0 with Concacaf’s Costa Rica in an episode of a deadness that felt deader than dead.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 24, 2018
If Jon Snow is deader than dead, why is he on the posters?
From The Guardian ● Apr. 20, 2016
‘Otherwise you is deader than duck-soup! I is helping you!’
From "The BFG" by Roald Dahl
Los Angeles has one of the deadest downtowns in the world, according to a new survey.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 13, 2026
In 1873, a correspondent to this journal fretted, “Science is all but dead in England … perhaps deadest of all at our Universities.”
From Nature ● Feb. 18, 2019
The worst possible situation — the deadest, most hostile crowd — I don’t care.
From New York Times ● Oct. 26, 2018
August weekends are among the slowest in American sports and dropping a huge fight in the deadest time is a real boost for everyone – at least everyone rich enough to buy this fight.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 25, 2017
I’m the deadest zombie ghost vampire who ever died.
From "What If It's Us" by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera
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.
