dead

adj

/dɛd/

Etymology

From Middle English ded, deed, from Old English dēad, from Proto-West Germanic *daud, from Proto-Germanic *daudaz. Compare West Frisian dead, dea, Dutch dood, German tot, Danish and Norwegian Bokmål død, Norwegian Nynorsk daud, Swedish död.

inherited from *daudaz✻
inherited from *daud✻
inherited from dēad
inherited from ded

Definitions

1
No longer living
No longer living; deceased. (Also used as a noun.)
- All of my grandparents are dead.
- Have respect for the dead.
- The villagers are mourning their dead.
2
Devoid of living things
Devoid of living things; barren.
- a dead planet
- Behold the substance from which all things draw their energy, the bright Spirit of the Globe, without which it cannot live, but must grow cold and dead as the dead moon.
- Was it possible to exist upon a dead world?
3
Figuratively, not alive
Figuratively, not alive; lacking life.
- When a man's verses cannot be understood, nor a man's good wit seconded with the forward child, understanding, it strikes a man more dead than a great reckoning in a little room.
›+ 40 more definitionsshow fewer
1. 4
  Utterly exhausted.
  - “Finished the last one at three this morning, apart from bits and bobs and poppers. Quite frankly, I'm dead!”
2. 5
  So hated or offensive as to be absolutely shunned, ignored, or ostracized.
  - He is dead to me.
  - I didn't have it in myself to go with grace And you're the hero flying around, saving face And if I'm dead to you, why are you at the wake?
3. 6
  Doomed
  Doomed; marked for death; as good as dead.
  - "You come back here this instant! Oh, you're dead, mister!"
  - You're dead. A million and one thoughts pounded her at once. But one overpowered all the others. This time you're dead.
4. 7
  Without emotion
  Without emotion; impassive.
  - She stood with dead face and limp arms, unresponsive to my plea.
5. 8
  Stationary
  Stationary; static; immobile or immovable.
  - the dead load on the floor
  - a dead lift
6. 9
  Without interest to one of the senses
  Without interest to one of the senses; dull; flat.
  - dead air
  - a dead glass of soda.
  - He stopped, took a swig of the dead champagne. It was like 7-Up.
7. 10
  Unproductive
  Unproductive; fallow.
  - dead time
  - dead fields
8. Past, bygone, vanished.
9. 12
  Lacking usual activity
  Lacking usual activity; unexpectedly quiet or empty of people.
  - For a Friday night, it's really dead in this restaurant.
10. 13
  Completely inactive
  Completely inactive; currently without power; without a signal; not live.
  - OK, the circuit's dead. Go ahead and cut the wire.
  - Now that the motor's dead you can reach in and extract the spark plugs.
  - The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.
11. Unable to emit power, being discharged (flat) or faulty.
12. 15
  Broken or inoperable.
  - That monitor is dead; don’t bother hooking it up.
13. 16
  No longer used or required.
  - There are several dead laws still on the books regulating where horses may be hitched.
  - Is this beer glass dead?
  - No mark of any kind should ever be made on a dead manuscript.
14. 17
  Intentionally designed so as not to impart motion or power.
  - the dead spindle of a lathe
  - A dead axle, also called a lazy axle, is not part of the drivetrain, but is instead free-rotating.
15. 18
  Not in play.
  - Once the ball crosses the foul line, it's dead.
16. Lying so near the hole that the player is certain to hole it in the next stroke.
17. Tagged out.
18. 21
  Full and complete (usually applied to nouns involving lack of motion, sound, activity, or…
  Full and complete (usually applied to nouns involving lack of motion, sound, activity, or other signs of life).
  - dead stop
  - dead sleep
  - dead giveaway
19. 22
  Exact
  Exact; on the dot.
  - dead center
  - dead aim
  - a dead eye
20. 23
  Experiencing pins and needles (paresthesia).
  - After sitting on my hands for a while, my arms became dead.
21. 24
  Expresses an emotional reaction associated with hyperbolic senses of die
  Expresses an emotional reaction associated with hyperbolic senses of die:
  - Lmao I’m dead this was me to my fiancé since I found out in the car and my son was in the back seat 😭
22. 25
  Constructed so as not to reflect or transmit sound
  Constructed so as not to reflect or transmit sound; soundless; anechoic.
  - a dead floor
23. 26
  Bringing death
  Bringing death; deadly.
  - You breathe these dead news in as dead an ear.
24. 27
  Cut off from the rights of a citizen
  Cut off from the rights of a citizen; deprived of the power of enjoying the rights of property.
  - A person who is banished or who becomes a monk is civilly dead.
25. Indifferent to
  Indifferent to; having no obligation toward; no longer subject to or ruled by (sin, guilt, pleasure, etc).
26. 29
  Of a syllable in languages such as Thai and Burmese
  Of a syllable in languages such as Thai and Burmese: ending abruptly.
  - […] syllable is dead, the tone will depend on whether the vowel is short or long.
27. 30
  Exactly.
  - dead right; dead level; dead flat; dead straight; dead left
  - He hit the target dead in the centre.
  - Across the region known as the Landes, this stretch of line is almost dead level, and the only curve is one of 2¼ miles radius through the station of Labouheyre.
28. 31
  Very, absolutely, extremely.
  - dead wrong; dead set; dead serious; dead drunk; dead broke; dead earnest; dead certain; dead slow; dead sure; dead simple; dead honest; dead accurate; dead easy
  - I knew once a Scotch sailmaker who was certain, dead sure, there were people in Mars.
  - They tried the gas in the room and it was dead out; they looked at the meter in the basement afterwards and it was dead off.
29. 32
  Suddenly and completely.
  - He stopped dead.
  - She cut me dead again at the last party.
30. 33
  As if dead.
  - dead tired; dead quiet; dead asleep; dead pale; dead cold; dead still
  - I was tired of reading, and dead sleepy.
31. 34
  Time when coldness, darkness, or stillness is most intense.
  - Near-synonym: nadir
  - the dead of night
  - the dead of winter
32. 35
  Those who have died
  Those who have died: dead people.
  - the quick and the dead
  - Will the dead rise again?
  - He will come again to judge the living and the dead.
33. (usually in the plural) Sterile mining waste, often present as many large rocks stacked…
  (usually in the plural) Sterile mining waste, often present as many large rocks stacked inside the workings.
34. Clipping of deadlift.
35. To prevent by disabling
  To prevent by disabling; to stop.
36. 39
  To make dead
  To make dead; to deaden; to deprive of life, force, or vigour.
  - Heaven's stern decree, / With many an ill, hath numb'd and deaded me.
37. 40
  To kill.
  - I shoulda deaded it from genesis instead of hittin' the Guinnesses
  - This dude at the club was trying to kill us so I deaded him, and then I had to collect from Spice.
  - “What, you was just gonna dead him because if that's the case then why the fuck we getting the money?” Sha asked annoyed.
38. 41
  To discontinue or put an end to (something).
  - "I thought I told you to shut up," said Jesus. "I don't be laying up with chickenheads, so you need to dead that shit before you piss me the fuck off."
  - "This might be kinda beside the point right now," I said carefully, settling into the chair across from him, "but it's probably time to dead all that open-door no-gun shit, huh?"
  - "Shorty, whatchu got in your pocket? Let me see that hat." ¶ "Nah, man. Dead that." Out would come the .32. ¶ "Oh, aight. You got that, shorty, you got that."
39. Initialism of diethyl azodicarboxylate.
40. Acronym of destruction of enemy air defense(s).

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at dead. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

A definitional loop anchored at dead. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

7 hops · closes at dead

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA