dead-end

See also: deadend and dead end

English

Alternative forms

• deadend

Pronunciation

• (adjective) IPA^(key): /ˈdɛdɛnd/
• (noun, verb) IPA^(key): /dɛdˈɛnd/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Rhymes: (noun, verb) -ɛnd

Adjective

dead-end (comparative more dead-end, superlative most dead-end)

1. (also figurative) Going nowhere; blocked.

   a dead-end street

   a dead-end job

   • 1984, Neil Tennant, Chris Lowe, “West End Girls”, performed by Pet Shop Boys:

     In a West End town, a dead end world / The East End boys and West End girls

   • 1999, “Rock Bottom”, in The Slim Shady LP, performed by Eminem:

     Livin' in this house with no furnace, unfurnished / And I'm sick of workin' dead-end jobs with lame pay

   • 2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 124:

     [...] as it approached Platform 9 at Moorgate, the train, which ought to have been going at 15 miles an hour, was travelling at 35 m.p.h., and apparently accelerating. It smashed into the head wall of the 60-foot dead-end tunnel because, as we have seen, the Metropolitan's plans to extend the line south had come to nothing.

   • 2014 May 25, Tom Clark, “To grasp the dead-end jobs boom, head to the car wash”, in The Guardian‎^[1], →ISSN:

     So where did all the dead-end jobs come from in the first place?

Translations

blocked

• Bulgarian: задънен (bg) (zadănen)
• Finnish: umpi- (fi)
• French: sans issue
• Greek:

  Ancient Greek: ἀδιέξοδος (adiéxodos)

• Indonesian: buntu (id)
• Spanish: sin salida / futuro / porvenir

Verb

dead-end (third-person singular simple present dead-ends, present participle dead-ending, simple past and past participle dead-ended)

1. (US) To come to a dead-end.

   Watch out! The road dead-ends in 200 yards and there's nowhere to turn around!

2. (by extension) To come to nothing; to reach a hopeless situation.
   • 1986 February 1, Michael Bronski, “Mock Homage to Fassbinder's Life & Films”, in Gay Community News, volume 13, number 28, page 6:

     Dumas' tangle of unrequited, misplaced and dead-ended love

Noun

dead-end (plural dead-ends)

1. Alternative spelling of dead end: a road with no exit.

   We turned into the street and realised it was a dead-end.

2. (figuratively) Alternative spelling of dead end: a position that offers no hope of progress.

   Mary realised her relationship with Jim had hit a dead-end.

   • 2024 September 3, Alon Pinkas, “As furious protesters take to the streets, Netanyahu may well have reached his political dead-end”, in The Guardian‎^[2], →ISSN:

     However, there is evidence that he has reached a political dead-end.

   • 2026 July 10, David E. Sanger, quoting Richard N. Haass, “Bombing and a Tentative Accord Didn’t Work. Does Trump Have a Plan C for Iran?”, in The New York Times‎^[3], →ISSN:

     “We are at something of a strategic dead-end,” said Richard N. Haass, a longtime diplomat who served at the State Department and the National Security Council under several administrations, including George W. Bush’s during the early days of the Iraq war.

Translations

road with no exit — see dead end

position — see dead end,‎ impasse

Anagrams

• dedenda