adjective
1.
no longer living; deprived of life
dead people
dead flowers
dead animals
2.
brain-dead
3.
not endowed with life; inanimate
dead stones
4.
resembling death; deathlike
a dead sleep
a dead faint
5.
bereft of sensation; numb
He was half dead with fright
My leg feels dead
6.
lacking sensitivity of feeling; insensitive
dead to the needs of others
7.
incapable of being emotionally moved; unresponsive
dead to the nuances of the music
8.(of an emotion)
no longer felt; ended; extinguished
a dead passion
dead affections
9.
no longer current or prevalent, as in effect, significance, or practice; obsolete
a dead law
a dead controversy
10.
no longer functioning, operating, or productive
a dead motor
a dead battery
11.
not moving or circulating; stagnant; stale
dead water
dead air
12.
utterly tired; exhausted
They felt dead from the six-hour trip
13.(of a language)
no longer in use as a sole means of oral communication among a people
Latin is a dead language
14.
without vitality, spirit, enthusiasm, or the like
a dead party
15.
lacking the customary activity; dull; inactive
a dead business day
16.
complete; absolute
dead silence
The plan was a dead loss
17.
sudden or abrupt, as the complete stoppage of an action
The bus came to a dead stop
18.
put out; extinguished
a dead cigarette
19.
without resilience or bounce
a dead tennis ball
20.
infertile; barren
dead land
21.
exact; precise
the dead center of a circle
22.
accurate; sure; unerring
a dead shot
23.
direct; straight
a dead line
24.
tasteless or flat, as a beverage
a dead soft drink
25.
flat rather than glossy, bright, or brilliant
The house was painted dead white
26.
without resonance; anechoic
dead sound
a dead wall surface of a recording studio
27.
not fruitful; unproductive
dead capital
28.Law
deprived of civil rights so that one is in the state of civil death, esp. deprived of the rights of property
29.Sport
out of play
a dead ball
30.(of a golf ball)
lying so close to the hole as to make holing on the next stroke a virtual certainty
31.(of type or copy)
having been used or rejected
32.Electricity
a.
free from any electric connection to a source of potential difference and from electric charge
b.
not having a potential different from that of the earth
33. Metallurgy (of steel)
a.
fully killed
b.
unresponsive to heat treatment
34.(of the mouth of a horse)
no longer sensitive to the pressure of a bit
35.
noting any rope in a tackle that does not pass over a pulley or is not rove through a block
36. See dead in the water
37. See dead to rights
noun
38.
the period of greatest darkness, coldness, etc
the dead of night
the dead of winter
39. See the dead
adverb
40.
absolutely; completely
dead right
dead tired
41.
with sudden and total stoppage of motion, action, or the like
He stopped dead
42.
directly; exactly; straight
The island lay dead ahead
SYNONYMS 1. 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 race, species, or the like, no member of which is any longer alive: Mastodons are now extinct. lifeless is applied to something that may or may not have had life but that does not have it or appear to have it now: The lifeless body of a child was taken out of the water. Minerals consist of lifeless materials. 6. unfeeling, indifferent, callous, cold. 10. inert, inoperative. 11. still, motionless. 16. utter, entire, total. 20. sterile.ANTONYMS 1. living, alive.
Most material © 2005, 1997, 1991 by Penguin Random House LLC. Modified entries © 2019 by Penguin Random House LLC and HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
Word origin
[bef. 950; ME deed, OE dēad; c. Goth dauths, G tot, ON daudhr; orig. ptp. See die1]
