drop-dead
inspiring awe, astonishment, or envy: a drop-dead guest list; a drop-dead sable coat.
being the most extreme limit or possibility: What's the drop-dead date for handing in term papers? That is our drop-dead offer.
Origin of drop-dead
1Words Nearby drop-dead
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use drop-dead in a sentence
And if so, can it cause you to literally drop dead from that ominous condition called “sudden death”?
Can Being With Your Family on Thanksgiving Actually Kill You? | Kent Sepkowitz | November 29, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTKarly Hopper is a drop-dead gorgeous woman with an IQ of 65 and a childlike sense of the world.
A Bar of Paranoid Schizos: Robert Boswell’s ‘Tumbledown’ | Drew Toal | August 6, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTAnd Netanyahu has told him to drop dead, which politically, he may soon do.
And Netanyahu has told him to drop dead, which politically, he may soon do.You got Obama wrong.
But Stacey Dash is drop dead gorgeous, so people take a special interest when she voices an opinion.
Why Stacey Dash’s Looks—Not Her Race—Matter in Her Romney Endorsement | Allison Samuels | October 11, 2012 | THE DAILY BEAST
Suppose I drop dead, Susan, will you like to be a bewitching young widow so soon?
Tessa Wadsworth's Discipline | Jennie M. DrinkwaterThen, when he started home again, to take his punishment, the first thing he did was to drop dead.
The Quality of Mercy | W. D. HowellsThe idolized only daughter of the Carr family hoped that she would drop dead from mortification, but nothing happened.
A Girl Of The Limberlost | Gene Stratton PorterIt's a very common superstition among English country folk that shrews always drop dead if they attempt to cross a road.
The Adventures of a Grain of Dust | Hallam HawksworthAnd she had a curious feeling that she should drop dead if her mother should clutch her.
In Wild Rose Time | Amanda M. Douglas
British Dictionary definitions for drop-dead
informal outstandingly or exceptionally: drop-dead gorgeous
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
Other Idioms and Phrases with drop-dead
An expression of anger, rejection, or indignation toward someone. For example, I should do all that work for you? Drop dead! This rude imperative is usually hyperbolic, that is, the speaker is not literally asking someone to die on the spot. [c. 1930] Curiously, the adjective (and adverb) drop-dead is not at all insulting. Rather, it means “dazzling” or “awe-inspiring,” as in She wore a drop-dead outfit that all the other women admired. This usage originated in slangy journalism in the 1960s.
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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