dead

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See also: déad

English[edit]

English Wikipedia has articles on:
Wikipedia

Etymology[edit]

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.

Pronunciation[edit]

  • enPR: dĕd, IPA(key): /dɛd/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Audio (AU)(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɛd
  • (West Country) IPA(key): /diːd/

Adjective[edit]

dead (comparative deader, superlative deadest)

A dead pigeon
  1. (usually not comparable) No longer living. (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
  2. (usually not comparable) Devoid of life.
    • 1887, H. Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure‎[1]:
      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[2]:
      Was it possible to exist upon a dead world?
  3. (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.
  4. (of another person) So hated that they are absolutely ignored.
    He is dead to me.
  5. Doomed; marked for death (literally or as a hyperbole).
    "You come back here this instant! Oh, you're dead, mister!"
    • 2009, Noel Hynd, Midnight in Madrid‎[3]:
      You're dead. A million and one thoughts pounded her at once. But one overpowered all the others. This time you're dead.
  6. Without emotion.
    She stood with dead face and limp arms, unresponsive to my plea.
  7. Stationary; static.
    the dead load on the floor
    a dead lift
  8. Without interest to one of the senses; dull; flat.
    dead air
    a dead glass of soda.
  9. Unproductive.
    dead time
    dead fields
  10. (not comparable, of a machine, device, or electrical circuit) Completely inactive; currently without power; without a signal.
    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.
  11. (of a battery) Unable to emit power, being discharged (flat) or faulty.
  12. (not comparable) Broken or inoperable.
    That monitor is dead; don’t bother hooking it up.
  13. (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.
  14. (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.
  15. (not comparable, sports) Not in play.
    Once the ball crosses the foul line, it's dead.
  16. (not comparable, golf, of a golf ball) Lying so near the hole that the player is certain to hole it in the next stroke.
  17. (not comparable, baseball, slang, 1800s) Tagged out.
  18. (not comparable) Full and complete.
    dead stop
    dead sleep
    dead giveaway
    dead silence
  19. (not comparable) Exact.
    dead center
    dead aim
    a dead eye
    a dead level
  20. Experiencing pins and needles (paresthesia).
    After sitting on my hands for a while, my arms became dead.
  21. Constructed so as not to transmit sound; soundless.
    a dead floor
  22. (obsolete) Bringing death; deadly.
  23. (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.
  24. (rare, especially religion, often with "to") Indifferent to, 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."

Usage notes[edit]

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)

Synonyms[edit]

Antonyms[edit]

Translations[edit]

Adverb[edit]

dead (not comparable)

  1. (degree, informal, colloquial) Exactly.
    dead right; dead level; dead flat; dead straight; dead left
    He hit the target dead in the centre.
  2. (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 Feb, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, page 216:
      I knew once a Scotch sailmaker who was certain, dead sure, there were people in Mars.
  3. Suddenly and completely.
    He stopped dead.
  4. (informal) As if dead.
    dead tired; dead quiet; dead asleep; dead pale; dead cold; dead still

Translations[edit]

Noun[edit]

dead (uncountable)

  2. (often with "the") Time when coldness, darkness, or stillness is most intense.
    The dead of night. The dead of winter.

Translations[edit]

Noun[edit]

dead (plural deads)

  2. (UK) (usually in the plural) Sterile mining waste, often present as many large rocks stacked inside the workings.
  4. (bodybuilding, colloquial) Clipping of deadlift.

Verb[edit]

dead (third-person singular simple present deads, present participle deading, simple past and past participle deaded)

  1. (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”
  2. (transitive) To make dead; to deaden; to deprive of life, force, or vigour.
  3. (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 terms[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

Terms derived from the adjective, adverb, noun, or verb dead

References[edit]

  • dead at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams[edit]

French[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From English dead.

Pronunciation[edit]

Verb[edit]

dead

  1. (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 notes[edit]

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 English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

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).

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

dēad

  1. dead

Declension[edit]

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
Singular Masculine Feminine Neuter
Nominative dēada dēade dēade
Accusative dēadan dēadan dēade
Genitive dēadan dēadan dēadan
Dative dēadan dēadan dēadan
Instrumental dēadan dēadan dēadan
Plural Masculine Feminine Neuter
Nominative dēadan dēadan dēadan
Accusative dēadan dēadan dēadan
Genitive dēadra, dēadena dēadra, dēadena dēadra, dēadena
Dative dēadum dēadum dēadum
Instrumental dēadum dēadum dēadum

Related terms[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

Descendants[edit]

  • Middle English: ded, deed

See also[edit]

Old Irish[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Proto-Celtic *dīwedom, verbal noun of *dīwedeti (“to stop”) (whence Welsh diwedd (“end, ending”)).

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

dead n (genitive deïd, no plural)

  1. end

Declension[edit]

Neuter o-stem
Singular Dual Plural
Nominative deadN — —
Vocative deadN — —
Accusative deadN — —
Genitive deïdL — —
Dative dïudL, deüd — —
Initial mutations of a following adjective:
  • H = triggers aspiration
  • L = triggers lenition
  • N = triggers nasalization

Derived terms[edit]

Related terms[edit]

Descendants[edit]

Mutation[edit]

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 reading[edit]

Volapük[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from English dead or death (with the "th" changed to "d").

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

dead (nominative plural deads)

  1. death, state being dead, state of death

Declension[edit]

declension of dead
singular plural
nominative dead deads
genitive deada deadas
dative deade deades
accusative deadi deadis
vocative 1 o dead! o deads!
predicative 2 deadu deadus
  • 1 status as a case is disputed
  • 2 in later, non-classical Volapük only

Derived terms[edit]

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