dead
See also: déad
EnglishEdit
EtymologyEdit
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, Norwegian død, Norwegian Nynorsk daud.
PronunciationEdit
- enPR: dĕd, IPA(key): /dɛd/
Audio (US) (file) Audio (AU) (file) - Rhymes: -ɛd
- (West Country) IPA(key): /diːd/
AdjectiveEdit
dead (not generally comparable, comparative deader, superlative deadest)
- (usually not comparable) No longer living; (usually only when referring to people) deceased. (Also used as a noun.)
- 1968, Ray Thomas, "Legend of a Mind", The Moody Blues, In Search of the Lost Chord.
- Timothy Leary's dead. / No, no no no, he's outside, looking in.
- All of my grandparents are dead.
- Have respect for the dead.
- The villagers are mourning their dead.
- The dead are always with us, in our hearts.
- raise the dead
- wake the dead
- 1968, Ray Thomas, "Legend of a Mind", The Moody Blues, In Search of the Lost Chord.
- (usually not comparable) Devoid of living things; barren.
- a dead planet
- 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
- 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.
- 1913, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Poison Belt[1]:
- Was it possible to exist upon a dead world?
- (hyperbolic) Figuratively, not alive; lacking life.
- 1600, William Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act III, Scene 3:
- 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.
- (of another person) So hated or offensive as to be absolutely shunned, ignored or ostracized.
- He is dead to me.
- Doomed; marked for death; as good as dead (literally or as a hyperbole).
- "You come back here this instant! Oh, you're dead, mister!"
- 2009, Noel Hynd, Midnight in Madrid[2]:
- You're dead. A million and one thoughts pounded her at once. But one overpowered all the others. This time you're dead.
- Without emotion; impassive.
- She stood with dead face and limp arms, unresponsive to my plea.
- Stationary; static; immobile or immovable.
- the dead load on the floor
- a dead lift
- Without interest to one of the senses; dull; flat.
- dead air
- a dead glass of soda.
- Unproductive; fallow.
- dead time
- dead fields
- (not comparable, of a machine, device, or electrical circuit) 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.
- 1984, William Gibson, chapter 1, in Neuromancer (Sprawl; book 1), New York, N.Y.: Ace Books, →ISBN, page 3:
- The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.
- 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Normandy SR-1:
- Joker: Everything cuts out after that. No comm traffic at all. Just goes dead. There's nothing.
- (of a battery) Unable to emit power, being discharged (flat) or faulty.
- (not comparable) Broken or inoperable.
- That monitor is dead; don’t bother hooking it up.
- (not comparable) 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?
- 1984, Winston Smock, Technical Writing for Beginners, page 148:
- No mark of any kind should ever be made on a dead manuscript.
- 2017, Zhaomo Yang and Brian Johannesmeyer, "Dead Store Elimination (Still) Considered Harmful":
- In this paper, we survey the set of techniques found in the wild that are intended to prevent data-scrubbing operations from being removed during dead store elimination.
- (engineering) Not imparting motion or power by design.
- 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.
- (not comparable, sports) Not in play.
- Once the ball crosses the foul line, it's dead.
- (not comparable, golf, of a golf ball) Lying so near the hole that the player is certain to hole it in the next stroke.
- (not comparable, baseball, slang, 1800s) Tagged out.
- (not comparable) Full and complete (usually applied to nouns involving lack of motion, sound, activity, or other signs of life).
- dead stop
- dead sleep
- dead giveaway
- dead silence
- (not comparable) Exact; on the dot.
- dead center
- dead aim
- a dead eye
- a dead level
- Experiencing pins and needles (paresthesia).
- After sitting on my hands for a while, my arms became dead.
- (acoustics) Constructed so as not to reflect or transmit sound; soundless; anechoic.
- a dead floor
- (obsolete) Bringing death; deadly.
- c. 1596, William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene vii]:
- You breathe these dead news in as dead an ear.
- (law) 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.
- (rare, especially religion, often with "to") Indifferent to; having no obligation toward; no longer subject to or ruled by (sin, guilt, pleasure, etc).
- 1839, William Jenks, The Comprehensive Commentary on the Holy Bible: Acts-Revelation, page 361:
- He was dead to the law. Whatever account others might make of it, yet, for his part, he was dead to it. […] But though he was thus dead to the law, yet he […] was far from thinking himself discharged from his duty to God' on the contrary, he was dead to the law, that he might live unto God.
- 1849, Robert Haldane, Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans, page 255:
- But he died to the guilt of sin—to the guilt of his people's sins which he had taken upon him; and they, dying with him, as is above declared, die to sin precisely in the same sense in which he died to it. […] He was not justified from it till his resurrection, but from that moment he was dead to it. When he shall appear the second time, it will be "without sin."
- 1839, William Jenks, The Comprehensive Commentary on the Holy Bible: Acts-Revelation, page 361:
Usage notesEdit
- In Middle and Early Modern English, the phrase is dead was more common where the present perfect form has died is common today. Example:
- 1611, King James Bible
- I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. (Gal. 2:21)
SynonymsEdit
- See also Thesaurus:dead
AntonymsEdit
TranslationsEdit
no longer alive
|
figuratively, not alive
idiomatic: hated
fully and completely motionless
|
without emotion
|
of a device: completely inactive; without power
|
broken or inoperable
|
no longer used or required
|
sports: not in play
experiencing pins and needles
AdverbEdit
dead (not comparable)
- (degree, informal, colloquial) Exactly.
- dead right; dead level; dead flat; dead straight; dead left
- He hit the target dead in the centre.
- (degree, informal, colloquial) 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; dead scared; dead solid; dead black; dead white; dead empty
- 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 216:
- I knew once a Scotch sailmaker who was certain, dead sure, there were people in Mars.
- Suddenly and completely.
- He stopped dead.
- (informal) As if dead.
- dead tired; dead quiet; dead asleep; dead pale; dead cold; dead still
- 1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, chapter 2, in The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC:
- I was tired of reading, and dead sleepy.
TranslationsEdit
exactly
very, absolutely, extremely, suddenly
|
NounEdit
dead (uncountable)
- (often with "the") Time when coldness, darkness, or stillness is most intense.
- The dead of night. The dead of winter.
TranslationsEdit
time when coldness, darkness, or stillness is most intense
|
NounEdit
dead (plural deads)
- (UK) (usually in the plural) Sterile mining waste, often present as many large rocks stacked inside the workings.
- (bodybuilding, colloquial) Clipping of deadlift.
VerbEdit
dead (third-person singular simple present deads, present participle deading, simple past and past participle deaded)
- (transitive) To prevent by disabling; stop.
- 1826, The Whole Works of the Right Rev. Edward Reynolds, Lord Bishop of Norwich, collected by Edward Reynolds, Benedict Riveley, and Alexander Chalmers. pp. 227. London: B. Holdsworth.
- “What a man should do, when finds his natural impotency dead him in spiritual works”
- 1826, The Whole Works of the Right Rev. Edward Reynolds, Lord Bishop of Norwich, collected by Edward Reynolds, Benedict Riveley, and Alexander Chalmers. pp. 227. London: B. Holdsworth.
- (transitive) To make dead; to deaden; to deprive of life, force, or vigour.
- 1614–1615, Homer, “(please specify the book number)”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., Homer’s Odysses. […], London: […] Rich[ard] Field [and William Jaggard], for Nathaniell Butter, published 1615, →OCLC; republished in The Odysseys of Homer, […], volume (please specify the book number), London: John Russell Smith, […], 1857, →OCLC:
- Heaven's stern decree, / With many an ill, hath numb'd and deaded me.
- (UK, US, transitive, slang) To kill.
- 2006, Leighanne Boyd, Once Upon A Time In The Bricks, page 178:
- This dude at the club was trying to kill us so I deaded him, and then I had to collect from Spice.
- 2008, Marvlous Harrison, The Coalition, page 106:
- “What, you was just gonna dead him because if that's the case then why the fuck we getting the money?” Sha asked annoyed.
- 2020 January 6, Courtney A. Kemp, Matt K. Turner, Power, season 6, episode 11, spoken by Tommy Egan (E Joseph Sikora), 33:48 from the start:
- TOMMY:”Honestly, I’d love to help you with that but I’ve got a surplus of motherfuckers that I need to dead right now.”
Related termsEdit
Derived termsEdit
Terms derived from the adjective, adverb, noun, or verb dead
- alveolar dead space
- anatomic dead space
- beat a dead horse
- better dead than Red
- better dead than red
- better to be late than be dead on time
- bottom dead center
- brain dead/brain-dead
- clinically dead
- come back from the dead
- cut someone dead
- dead against
- dead air
- dead amiss
- dead and buried
- dead and gone
- dead angle
- dead as a dodo
- dead as a doorknob
- dead as a doornail
- dead as a herring
- dead as a kipper
- dead as a mackerel
- dead as ditch-water
- dead asleep
- dead ball
- dead bat
- dead beat
- dead bird
- dead block
- dead body
- dead cake
- dead calm
- dead cat
- dead cat bounce
- dead center
- dead centre
- dead cert
- dead code
- dead colouring
- dead comet
- dead dial
- dead donkey
- dead door
- dead drop
- dead drunk
- dead duck
- dead end
- dead finish
- dead first
- dead fish
- dead flat
- dead fly biscuit
- dead freight
- dead from the neck up
- dead furrow
- dead giveaway
- dead ground
- dead hand
- dead hang
- dead heat
- dead horse
- dead ice
- dead in the train
- dead in the water
- dead key
- dead language
- dead last
- dead leg
- dead letter
- dead letter office
- dead level
- dead link
- dead load
- dead loss
- dead man walking
- dead man/dead man's hand
- dead man's arm
- dead man's brake
- dead man's fingers
- dead man's float
- dead man's handle
- dead man's rope
- dead man's switch
- dead march
- dead marine
- dead meat
- dead media
- dead melt
- dead men
- dead men can tell no tales
- dead men tell no tales
- dead men's bells
- dead men's shoes
- dead metaphor
- dead money
- dead 'n' buried
- dead name
- dead nuts
- dead of night
- dead of winter
- dead oil
- dead on
- dead on arrival
- dead on one's feet
- dead on the vine
- dead or alive
- dead pan
- dead pixel
- dead plate
- dead pledge
- dead pool
- dead president
- dead reckoning
- dead ringer
- dead rise
- dead rising
- dead room
- dead rubber
- dead run
- dead sea
- Dead Sea
- dead section
- dead serious
- dead set
- dead set against
- dead shot
- dead sleep
- dead soldier
- dead space
- dead spot
- dead stand
- dead stick
- dead sticking
- dead stock
- dead tired
- dead to rights
- dead to the world
- dead tree
- dead tree edition
- dead wagon
- dead wall
- dead water
- dead week
- dead weight
- dead white European male
- dead wind
- dead woman walking
- dead wood
- dead wrong
- dead yard
- dead zone
- dead-air space
- dead-alive
- dead-and-alive
- dead-ball era
- dead-blow
- dead-born/deadborn
- dead-bug
- dead-cat bounce
- dead-center
- dead-centered
- dead-clothes
- dead-drop
- dead-end
- dead-ender
- dead-eye
- dead-eye Dick
- dead-eyed
- dead-handed
- dead-handedness
- dead-hearted
- dead-heartedly
- dead-heartedness
- dead-in-shell
- dead-leg
- dead-light
- dead-march
- dead-melt
- dead-name
- dead-naming
- dead-nuts
- dead-on
- dead-pan
- dead-pay
- dead-red
- dead-ringer
- dead-rope
- dead-set
- dead-stock
- dead-stroke
- dead-stroke hammer
- dead-tree
- dead-wrong
- deadbeat
- deader than a doornail
- deader than disco
- deadfall
- deadhead
- deadlike
- deadline/dead line
- deadlock
- deadname
- deadness
- deadnettle
- deadpan
- deadwood
- draw dead
- drop dead
- drop-dead
- dry as a dead dingo's donga
- dry as a dead dingo's donger
- fit to wake the dead
- flog a dead horse
- flog a dead pony
- from my cold, dead hands
- from the dead
- genetic dead end
- half-dead
- heavy as a dead donkey
- kill someone dead
- knock dead
- lantern of the dead
- leave for dead
- link-dead
- live end dead end
- living dead
- medium dead
- nose-dead
- not be caught dead
- over my dead body
- physiologic dead space
- play dead
- pre-dead
- put the dead wood on
- Queen Anne's dead
- raise the dead
- red dead man's fingers
- rise from the dead
- sit dead-red
- stone dead
- stone-dead
- stop dead
- temporal dead zone
- to wake the dead
- top dead center
- undead
- wake up dead
- wouldn't be caught dead
- wouldn't be seen dead
- you're a long time dead
ReferencesEdit
- dead at OneLook Dictionary Search
AnagramsEdit
FrenchEdit
EtymologyEdit
PronunciationEdit
VerbEdit
dead
- (slang, anglicism) to succeed (in doing something well, "killing it")
- 2018, “Djadja”, in Djadja, performed by Aya Nakamura:
- J'suis pas ta catin Djadja, genre en catchana baby tu dead ça.
- I ain't your bitch Djadja, as if you kill it doing doggystyle, baby.
Usage notesEdit
The verb is left unconjugated: il dead, il a dead. Usage is limited to the present, as well as an infinitive or a past participle.
Old EnglishEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Proto-West Germanic *daud, from Proto-Germanic *daudaz. Cognate with Old Frisian dād, Old Saxon dōd, Old High German tōt, Old Norse dauðr, Gothic 𐌳𐌰𐌿𐌸𐍃 (dauþs).
PronunciationEdit
AdjectiveEdit
dēad
DeclensionEdit
Declension of dēad — Strong
| Singular | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | dēad | dēad | dēad |
| Accusative | dēadne | dēade | dēad |
| Genitive | dēades | dēadre | dēades |
| Dative | dēadum | dēadre | dēadum |
| Instrumental | dēade | dēadre | dēade |
| Plural | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter |
| Nominative | dēade | dēada, dēade | dēad |
| Accusative | dēade | dēada, dēade | dēad |
| Genitive | dēadra | dēadra | dēadra |
| Dative | dēadum | dēadum | dēadum |
| Instrumental | dēadum | dēadum | dēadum |
Declension of dēad — Weak
Derived termsEdit
Related termsEdit
- dēaþ (“death”)
DescendantsEdit
See alsoEdit
- sweltan (“to die”)
Old IrishEdit
Alternative formsEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Proto-Celtic *dīwedom, verbal noun of *dīwedeti (“to stop”) (whence Welsh diwedd (“end, ending”)).
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
dead n (genitive deïd, no plural)
DeclensionEdit
| Neuter o-stem | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Dual | Plural | |
| Nominative | deadN | — | — |
| Vocative | deadN | — | — |
| Accusative | deadN | — | — |
| Genitive | deïdL | — | — |
| Dative | dïudL, deüd | — | — |
Initial mutations of a following adjective:
| |||
Derived termsEdit
Related termsEdit
DescendantsEdit
- Irish: diaidh
- ⇒ Middle Irish: co dead (“forever”, literally “to the end”)
- Irish: go deo
- Scottish Gaelic: dèidh
- Manx: jei
MutationEdit
| Old Irish mutation | ||
|---|---|---|
| Radical | Lenition | Nasalization |
| dead | dead pronounced with /ð(ʲ)-/ |
ndead |
| Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs. | ||
Further readingEdit
- G. Toner, M. Ní Mhaonaigh, S. Arbuthnot, D. Wodtko, M.-L. Theuerkauf, editors (2019), “dead”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
- Matasović, Ranko (2009), “dī-wedo-”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 9), Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 100
VolapükEdit
EtymologyEdit
Borrowed from English dead or death (with the "th" changed to "d").
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
dead (nominative plural deads)
DeclensionEdit
declension of dead